Uttar Pradesh minister Kamal Rani Varun died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Lucknow on Sunday, the first minister in the state to succumb to the disease. She was 62.

The technical education minister, who tested positive for the virus on July 18, was the only woman cabinet minister in the state. She was admitted at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPIMS). She had comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension and hyperthyroidism, a senior doctor at the hospital said.

Kamal Rani, who was the MLA from Ghatampur in Kanpur and had been elected to the Lok Sabha twice, was initially admitted to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital in Lucknow. She was later shifted to the SGPIMS.

SGPIMS director Dr R.K. Dhiman said in a statement the minister, who was put on a ventilator on Saturday, had been suffering from fever, cough and breathlessness.

The statement said she required non-invasive ventilation with high oxygen requirements.

“She was given Inj. Remdesevir followed by Tocilizumab following which she had transient improvement in her clinical status for a few days but again her condition started deteriorating,” the statement said. She was transfused with convalescent plasma and steroid doses were hiked, it said.