A woman councillor in Telangana's Sangareddy district died of Covid-19 on Monday, officials said.
The councillor of Sangareddy municipality succumbed at state-run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.
She is the first public representative to succumb to the virus in the state. A district official said she was admitted to state-run Chest Hospital in Hyderabad on June 30 with suspected symptoms of Covid-19 disease.
She tested positive on July 3. As her condition had started deteriorating, she was shifted to Gandhi Hospital, where all critical Covid patients were under treatment. However, she succumbed in the early hours of Monday.
Her son is also reported to have tested positive for Covid-19 and is currently under treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad.
Following the councillor's death, the officials kept her 14 family members into isolation and were monitoring their condition.
Sangareddy has the second largest number of Covid-19 patients after Greater Hyderabad. Several government officials have tested positive in Sangareddy town and other parts of the district, adjoining the state capital.
Meanwhile, a tehsildar and his wife had tested positive in Sangareddy town. Officials were trying to trace their contacts. A woman working as a manager in a nationalized bank too tested positive.
State Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali and three MLAs of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) tested positive last month. Ali has recovered and was discharged from hospital last week.
There has been a spike in coronavirus cases in the state for the last one month. The tally rose to 23,902 on Sunday with 1,590 new cases. Sangareddy district on Sunday reported 19 new cases.
The pandemic has so far claimed 295 lives in Telangana.
