Lokpal Member Justice AK Tripathi, 62, Dies Due To Coronavirus

Lokpal member Justice AK Tripathi (retired) has died due to coronavirus infection, sources said. He was 62. He had been admitted to AIIMS in Delhi on April 2.

His daughter and cook who were infected with the highly contagious COVID-19 have recovered, sources said.

Justice Tripathi, a former Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court, had been in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the trauma care centre at AIIMS. He was also put on a ventilator after his condition turned critical. He died at 8:45 pm on Saturday.

Justice Tripathi is one of the four judicial members of the anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal.

He last attended office on March 20. The Lokpal office building was sanitised after he tested positive for coronavirus. All Lokpal Members live in the same apartment in Delhi's Kidwai Nagar, which was also sanitised.

The AIIMS trauma care centre that mostly treated road accident victims was recently converted into a dedicated COVID-19 hospital.

Health professionals have said the coronavirus is dangerous particularly to very young children and the elderly.

India recorded the biggest single-day jump of 2,411 coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the total to 37,776, the Health Ministry said. It said 1,223 deaths linked to the highly infectious COVID-19 have been reported so far. Seventy-one deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.