Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Benaluru, Sep 16: Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai has tested positive for coronavirus.
Bommai, who is also the district in-charge minister of Udupi, said in a tweet that a boy working at his home had undergone COVID test and was found to have contracted the infection on Tuesday September 15.
"The domestic servant at my home was confirmed with coronavirus infection yesterday. In this backdrop, I too underwent the test. I have also been tested positive for the infection. I have not been suffering from any symptoms of the disease. I am healthy and will be staying separately in my own house," he tweeted on Wednesday September 16.
The minister has requested those who had come in direct contact wth him in the recent past to undergo the test and to undertake all necessary precautionary measures.
"Those who had come in direct contact with me recently are hereby requested to undergo tests and take suitable precautionary measures," he said.
Bommai is the latest among the state ministers to be infected by the coronavirus though all of them have been asymptomatic and most of them have recovered.
Ahead of the monsoon session of the state legislature from September 21, urban development minister Byrathi Basavaraj tested Covid positive and was admitted to a private hospital in the city on Tuesday.
Basavaraj is the ruling BJP's legislator from the K R Puram Assembly segment in the city's eastern suburb.
State animal husbandry minister Prabhu Chauhan also tested positive for the coronavirus on September 9 at Bidar in the state's northern region.
Early this month, state labour minister Shivaram Hebbar tested positive on September 5 and has been in home quarantine for treatment at Yellapur in Uttara Kannada district in the state's northwest coastal region.
Besides state chief minister B S Yeddiyurappa, half-a-dozen ministers, including B R Sriramulu (health), C T Ravi (tourism), Shashikala Jolle (women and child development), K S Eshwarappa (rural development), Anand Singh (forests and environment) and S T Somashekar (cooperation) tested for the virus and were discharged after they recovered over the last one month.
Opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah, his party's state unit president D K Shivakumar and scores of lawmakers of the BJP, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) were affected by the virus and recovered after treatment since July.
With so many ministers and legislators getting infected, Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Kageri Hegde on September 8 directed all the MLAs to undergo RT-PCR test in their respective constituencies on September 18 before the 8-day monsoon session from September 21 at Vidhana Soudha in the city centre.
"Only those who test negative will be allowed to attend the session. The legislators should carry a certificate from a state-run hospital showing they tested negative for the virus when they enter the Assembly," said Kageri.
The state legislature has made elaborate arrangements for the session in compliance with the standard operating procedure of the union ministry of home affairs and the Covid-induced guidelines of the union health ministry to prevent the pandemic spread.
Wearing of a mask, washing hands with sanitizers and maintaining social distancing will be mandatory for all the legislative members.
With inputs from IANS