A 36-year-old journalist working with a Telugu news channel died of COVID-19 coronavirus at state-run Gandhi Hospital as Telangana continued to report a surge in COVID-19 infections with 154 cases being reported on Sunday, taking the tally to 3,650.

As many as 14 people succumbed to the deadly infection taking the total fatalities to 137.

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The reporter was admitted to the hospital on June 4 after being referred from another state-run hospital, where he had tested positive.

The journalist had bilateral pneumonia with Type-1 respiratory failure and Acute Respiratory Disease Syndrome (ARDS) when he was admitted at Gandhi Hospital on June 4 after testing positive for the virus, doctors at the hospital said.

He was also suffering from Myasthenia Gravis, a long-term neuromuscular disease that leads to varying degrees of skeletal muscle weakness, they added.

He is the first journalist in Telangana to have succumbed to the dreaded virus.

Hospital sources said his condition started deteriorating early Sunday and he was put on a ventilator.

The scribe’s death came as a shock to the journalist fraternity in Hyderabad. A few journalists had tested positive for Coronavirus last week. Some of them were asymptomatic.

Meanwhile, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao conveyed his condolences to the members of the bereaved family.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy also condoled the death of the scribe.

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajanalso expressed grief andhinted at intensifying the fight against the pandemic in view of rise in number of cases and mortality in the state “amidst restricted testing rates.”

“Concerned about journalist’s death.. share family’s grief. Firstline warriors drs, nurses, paramedics , police, journalists must be safeguarded 2 safeguard public in #pandemic Increasing positive cases & mortality in TS amidst restricted testing rates tell us 2 intensify our fight,” the she tweeted.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee President and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy and State Media Academy Chairman Allam Narayana were also among those who condoled the journo’s death.

In a related development, the state-run Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences here partially closed five departments for three days from Sunday till June 9 and undertook sanitisation after as many as 20 doctors and nurses working in these departments tested positive for the virus last week, a senior doctor told PTI.

(With PTI inputs)