Tripura woman kills self after COVID-19 test; result comes out positive

A day after her swab sample was tested for COVID-19, a 50-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of a toilet in G B Pant hospital here, an official said. The police suspects that she had developed a fear of contracting the disease and may have committed suicide out of panic.

S K Rakesh, Additional Chief Secretary, who is also the Health Secretary, said that the woman was admitted to the flu ward of the hospital on Monday.

"The body of the woman was found hanging from the ceiling of the lavatory of the hospital around 5 am while her COVID-19 report came at 11 am which revealed that she was coronavirus positive," Rakesh said.

The deceased was a resident of Matinagar village in West Tripura district, near here.

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"The mother of the deceased had accompanied her to the hospital on Monday night and she found her daughter missing from the bed on Tuesday morning.

"After a frantic search in the hospital, her mother found the body hanging from the ceiling of the toilet," a police officer said.

The deceased was a patient of chronic kidney disease and bronchitis, he said.

"It is suspected that she committed suicide out of fear that she was infected with novel coronavirus," the officer said.

The body was sent for post-mortem examination and a case of unnatural death was registered, he said.