Bachchan sent home to recover

BOLLYWOOD superstar Amitabh Bachchan has been discharged from a Mumbai hospital where he was treated for Covid-19 during a 23-day stay, his son said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, India’s Federal Home Minister Amit Shah became the latest high-profile personality in the country to contract the virus.

The minister tweeted that his health was “fine” but he was in hospital on the advice of doctors.

The 77-year-old actor and his son, Abhishek Bachchan, were admitted to the Nanavati Hospital on July 11 after testing positive for the virus.

“My father, thankfully, has tested negative on his latest Covid-19 test and has been discharged from the hospital,” Abhishek Bachchan wrote on Twitter.

“He will now be at home at rest. Thank you all for your prayers and wishes for him.”

Abhishek’s wife, Aishwarya

Rai Bachchan, and their daughter, Aaradhya, were also treated at the same hospital for Covid-19 and were discharged last week.

Mumbai, India’s financial hub and home to the Bollywood film industry, has emerged as the epicentre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

Bachchan is one of India’s most popular actors and has appeared in nearly 200 films over five decades. He has 43.2 million Twitter followers.

With a total of 1.7 million coronavirus infections, India, a country of 1.3 billion people, has had the third-highest number of cases, after the US and Brazil.

It has been reporting an excess of 50 000 new coronavirus cases every day since Thursday. | DPA