Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has temporarily taken charge of the health ministry and other departments which were under Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain as the latter tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.
Jain’s first COVID-19 test, conducted on Tuesday, had shown a negative result, senior government officials said. Officials in the hospital said that he is yet on oxygen support.
Furthermore, Jain, AAP MLA Atishi, and two other leaders of the party — Akshay Marathe, a consultant to CM Arvind Kejriwal and Anindita Mathur, an advisor to deputy CM Manish Sisodia — also tested positive for the viral infection on Wednesday. Party functionaries said swab samples of all three of them were obtained on Tuesday after they formulated benign symptoms.
All three have been advised home isolation by doctors and reference tracing have been instigated, said a health department official, amplifying that their offices have been sanitized too. Delhi government officials said that the health department is yet to begin tracking contacts of Jain.
Jain had attended the conference chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah along with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. “Social distancing was rigidly held to in the meeting but whether others attending in the conference should get tested would depend on what the health officials suggest after the reference tracing exercise,” said a senior government official.
On Tuesday, soon after being admitted to the hospital, Jain had said that he acquired the symptoms the previous night. Till Monday, Jain also chaired various meetings and frequented healthcare centres to take commodity of covid healthcare management, a senior functionary said.
This appears a week after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tested negative for Covid-19.
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