With composure, determination, 97-year-old from Agra beats Covid-19

Covid-19 cases in Agra crossed the 1,000 mark on Wednesday night when the city had recorded an overall of 1,008 positive cases till date, which is highest in state of Uttar Pradesh.

GC Gupta, 97, a retired civil engineer from the city of the Taj Mahal, survived the coronavirus disease and has been lionised as an example by the administration for other senior citizens to follow.

Gupta was discharged from Nayati Hospital on June 10 after 12 days of treatment. He was admitted in the hospital on May 29 with breathing difficulty and a kidney infection. He tested positive for Covid-19 on May 30.

An executive at the hospital credited Gupta’s recovery to his sheer determination to defeat the coronavirus.

“ He exhibited no signs of nervousness and rather being worried for himself, was more concerned about his family undergoing quarantine. He remained calm and composed and made things easy for doctors treating him,” added this person who asked not to be named.

Gupta’s son Arun Kumar said his father has always been a man with strong will.Gupta served in the irrigation department of Uttar Pradesh and retired in 1973. Arun Kumar said his father is a vegetarian, a teetotaller and into meditation.

“He remains on basic medication and is regular with his multi-vitamins, a tablet each for urine trouble and blood pressure beside that for thinning the blood. An early riser, he gets up at 3.30am for meditation and loves watching television to keep himself appraised of the latest in the world,” said Arun Kumar, 65.

Covid-19 cases in Agra crossed the 1,000 mark on Wednesday night when the city had recorded an overall of 1,008 positive cases till date, which is highest in state of Uttar Pradesh. It was Agra which had the state’s first five positive cases, on March 2.

Agra has seen 56 Covid-related deaths but has a good cure rate of 84%, with 840 patients already having been discharged after being cured.

On March 30, an elderly couple from Kerala, aged 93 and 88, who had tested positive and remained critical for days, were reported to have recovered completely.

The duo had caught the infection from their son who came down from Italy, the state government had said in a press release.