Delhi minister, AAP leaders +ve

ON SUNDAY MORNING, JAIN HAD ATTENDED THE MEETING CHAIRED BY HOME MINISTER AMIT SHAH ALONG WITH L-G ANIL BAIJAL, CM ARVIND KEJRIWAL AND DEPUTY CM MANISH SISODIA

NEW DELHI: Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday tweeted that he has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (covid-19). “Today my covid test found to be positive,” said the minister, who was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) on Tuesday after he developed high fever and his oxygen saturation levels dropped.

His first covid-19 test, conducted on Tuesday, had shown a negative result, senior government officials said. Officials in the hospital said that he is still on oxygen support.

Besides Jain, AAP MLA Atishi and two other leaders of the party -- Akshay Marathe, an advisor to CM Arvind Kejriwal and Anindita Mathur, an advisor to deputy CM Manish Sisodia -- also tested positive for the viral disease on Wednesday. Party functionaries said swab samples of all three were collected on Tuesday after they developed mild symptoms.

All three have been recommended home isolation by doctors and contact tracing have been initiated, said a health department official, adding that their offices have been sanitised too. Delhi government officials said that the health department is yet to initiate tracing contacts of Jain.

On Sunday morning, Jain had attended the meeting 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 strictly adhered to in the meeting but whether others present in the meeting should get tested would depend on what the health officials recommend after the contact tracing exercise,” said a senior government official.

According to the Union health ministry’s recently issued revised protocols on Covid-19 management, the precise interval during which an individual with Covid-19 is infectious is uncertain.

“As per the current evidence, the period of infectivity starts 2 days prior to onset of symptoms and lasts up to 8 days.” as for testing, Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines say that for asympotmatic close contatcs, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test should be done on the fifth day and repeated on the 10 day in case it was negative.

Experts in the field also say that before the fifth day chances of getting a false negative result are high.