New Delhi, Mar 28 (IANS): Kerala recorded its first Covid-19 death on Saturday, March 28. A 69-year-old man today died in Kalamasserry Medical College, Kochi here.

He had travel history of Dubai and was admitted on March 22 due to pneumonia. He was later tested positive for coronavirus. He had undergone bypass surgery earlier and was a heart patient and high blood pressure. Forty nine passengers in the flight he came are under quarantine.

There are at least 803 active Covid-19 cases in India at present, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday, taking the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 906.

The country has reported 20 casualties so far while 83 persons have recovered.

The virus has so far spread to 27 states and UTs. A total of 103 districts have been affected by the highly contagious coronavirus.

On Friday, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that it has given orders to Public Sector Undertakings to provide ventilators in order to handle the surge in novel coronavirus cases in the country.

Joint Health Secretary of the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said, "The government is taking pre-emptive and proactive approach to tackle the situation. In order to upgrade the number of ventilators in the country," adding "We have given an order to PSU to provide 10,000 ventilators. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), which is one of the Defence Ministry's PSs, has also been requested to purchase 30,000 additional ventilators in 1-2 months."

Agarwal said at least 1.4 lakh companies have allowed their employees to work from home as per government's request. "Around 1.4 lakh companies allowed employees work from home after our appeal of social distancing and lockdown."