A man from the Chittoor district of Andhra killed himself after he suspected that he was infected with the coronavirus, that has claimed over 1100 lives across the world so far.

The man, identified as Balakrishnayya (50), feared that he would cause more people in cloxe proximity with him to be infected with the virus and hence decided to take the extreme step, according to reports. Balakrishnayya allegedly had a urinary tract infection, but convinced himself that he was infected with coronavirus as the doctor had informed him of similar symptoms. "He had gone to hospital for checkup regarding heart ailment. The doctors told him to use a mask. He misunderstood and thought he was infected with coronavirus," the deceased man's son reportedly stated.

"He wouldn't let any of us come near him. I told him you don't have infection but he wouldn't listen. May be, if he got proper counselling, he would have listened. He saw lots of videos (on internet) about symptoms and concluded that he had all those symptoms. He locked us up in the house on Monday and before we could get help to stop him, he hanged himself on a tree," he further added.

So far, three people from Kerala who returned from China's Wuhan tested positive for coronavirus. No new cases have been reported from Kerala or any state in India.