Indian minister dies from coronavirus

India's Uttar Pradesh minister Kamal Rani Varun, who had earlier tested positive for the novel coronavirus, died due to the infection in Lucknow on Sunday, reports Indian Express.

Kamal Rani is the first minister in Uttar Pradesh to die after contracting coronavirus. She was 62.

Expressing condolences, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called her a “popular public leader who worked efficiently.” “I express my deepest condolences to the family of Cabinet Minister Kamala Rani Varun. She was COVID19 positive and was receiving treatment at SGPGI Hospital. She was a popular public leader & a social worker. She worked efficiently while being the part of the Cabinet,” he tweeted. Read in Malayalam

Kamal Rani Varun served as Minister of Technical Education in the Uttar Pradesh government. On July 18, the MLA from Ghatampur in Kanpur tested positive for coronavirus and was admitted to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital. She was later shifted to the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

Uttar Pradesh on Saturday reported 47 more deaths due to COVID-19 and 3,807 fresh infections, taking the total number of cases in the state to 89,608. During a routine meeting at his residence, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to make arrangements for additional ventilators at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur and Jhansi Medical College in view of the rising COVID-19 cases in the state. He directed officials to work in a proactive manner to effectively contain the spread of the disease.