By Matters India Reporter

Patna, April 2, 2020: Anitha Vinod, the first person to recover from Covid-19 virus in Bihar, says her firm faith in Jesus and strict adherence to government guidelines has saved her from the deadly disease.

“I got scared when the first report came on March 22. But that did not shake my belief in God,” said the 45-year-old Protestant woman, who is now at her home in Digha, a western suburb in Patna, after being discharged on March 30 from a hospital in the state capital.

The native of Kerala, who married Vinod Venkatraman, a social worker from Tamil Nadu, said she read the Bible in the hospital to fight her loneliness and anxiety.

She and her husband, who is also a Bible teacher, had gone to Nepal on March 2 but had to return to Patna six days later to meet her elder son Vivin, who returned from Italy.

“Vivin returned from Pisa via Rome and Delhi on March 5. He was kept under two-week home isolation until March 18. He also went through medical screening at Delhi and Rome airports,” Anitha told reporters.

Vivin, 21, is currently studying masters in economics at the University of Pisa. His younger brother Vytik is a B Com student of Patna’s St Xavier’s College.

Anitha said she had asked Vivin to return home because of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. On March 15, she developed cold and mild fever after which they tested their samples for Covid 19 on March 20.

“My son’s report came negative while mine was positive,” she narrated.

During her hospitalization at the Patna unit of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, her family members were kept in three separate rooms in their house in Digha.

“We only saw each other via video calls on mobile phones.

She had given to the health department the details of their seven relatives she had met on her return from Nepal. They too were quarantined and the department tested their samples that proved negative.

Their seven relatives Anitha had met on return from Nepal were also quarantined in their homes.

Anitha thanked the health department for its timely intervention that helped contain the disease.

In a television interview she said she was cured from the dreaded disease because of her firm belief in Jesus.

Anita has urged her countrymen to follow the government guidelines and stay at their homes to save lives.