Two AMU teachers die, showed COVID-like symptoms

ALIGARH: Two more teachers with "COVID-like symptoms" have died at the Aligarh Muslim University, which has lost seven faculty members in recent days amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. Prof Mohammad Ali of Centre of Agricultural Sciences and Prof Qazi Jamshed of Political Science Department passed away on Wednesday after a brief illness, a university spokesman said on Thursday.

With these two deaths, AMU has lost seven members of its teaching staff in the past 10 days, he said. Earlier, Department of Museology chairman Irfan Ahmad (61), Assistant Prof Faisal Aziz (45), Prof Maula Baksh (59) from the Department of Urdu, Prof Saeed Zaman from the university polytechnic, and Prof Ahsanullah Fahad (50) from the Department of Theology had passed away.

On Wednesday, in an open letter to the AMU community, Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor had said that the university authorities have approached pharmaceutical company Cipla to rush 1,000 doses of Remdesivir to tackle the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the university. An online emergency help desk and telemedicine service for teachers and other employees were also set up on Wednesday.

Mansoor expressed hope that any shortage in oxygen supplies would be overcome within the next three weeks when the new oxygen-producing plant will become functional. Notably, the Vice-Chancellor had sanctioned Rs 1.4 crore to set up an oxygen generation plant. Meanwhile, in Bareilly, a Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Sahsavan tehsil in Badaun, Kishore Gupta (60), who had tested positive for COVID-19, died during treatment on Thursday morning. He was due to retire on Friday.

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