13th August, 2020
India’s former president Pranab Mukherjee is still on ventilator support and his condition remains unchanged as he is deeply comatose, health officials said Thursday.
“The condition of Pranab Mukherjee remains unchanged this morning, He is deeply comatose with stable vital parameters and he continues to be on ventilatory support,” a statement from Indian army’s research and referral hospital published Thursday in local media said.
The former president was admitted to the hospital on Monday and operated upon for removal of a clot in his brain. Prior to surgery, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee took to social media to dispel rumours in local media about his father’s condition.
“My father Pranab Mukherjee is still alive and haemodynamically stable,” he wrote on twitter on Thursday.
“Speculations and fake news being circulated by reputed journalists on social media clearly reflects that media in India has become a factory of fake news.”
Following surgery Mukherjee’s condition became critical and he was put on life support.
Mukherjee served as India’s president between 2012 to 2017.
India said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country have reached 2, 396,637 including 47,033 deaths by Thursday.
Globally India is the third worst-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic.