UP Cabinet minister Kamal Rani dies due to COVID-19 ; state mourning announced

Lucknow :UP's Cabinet minister for Technical Education Kamal Rani Varun succumbed to COVID-19 on Sunday at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences here. The Yogi Adityanath government has announced a state mourning after the demise of the Minister. Adityanath has also cancelled his visit to Ayodhya scheduled for the day, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said on Sunday.

"Kamal Rani Varun died on Sunday at around 9.30 am. She was an experienced and capable leader. She discharged her responsibilities with competence. She was a dedicated public representative, who was always working for the welfare of deprived and oppressed sections of the society." said Adityanath expressing his grief over the minister's death in a condolence message issued on Sunday.

On July 18, the minister tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital here. She was later shifted to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

Kamal Rani, aged 62, is the first minister in Uttar Pradesh to die after contracting coronavirus. She was Cabinet minister for Technical Education of UP. The council of minister held a condolence meeting and observed a two-minute silence on the occasion. The cremation will take place in Kanpur later in the day.

According to an official statement issued by Prof. R.K. Dhiman, director SGPGIMS, the minister had comorbidities in form of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hypothyroidism.

"She had bilateral pneumonia at admission and was shifted to ICU on the day of admission itself because of high oxygen requirement. Later, she required non-invasive ventilation (NIV) with high oxygen requirements.

"On evaluation, she had all the features of severe disease and she was given Inj. Remdesevir followed by Tocilizumab following which she had transient improvement in her clinical status for few days but again her condition started deteriorating with progressively increasing NIV and oxygen requirements," the statement said.

She was immediately transfused with convalescent plasma and steroid doses were hiked.

She was put on mechanical ventilator on Saturday but her condition continued to deteriorate with hypotension and multi organ dysfunction and succumbed to her illness.

Currently, Kamal Rani was MLA from Ghatampur in Kanpur. In the past, she was also a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha twice.

[ Inputs from PTI and IANS ]