Home Minister Amit Shah tests COVID-19 positive

PTI1_27_2020_000122B

New Delhi: India's Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday.

The Union Home Minister tweeted the information from his official twitter account.

Shah, 55, also requested those who had come in contact with him in the last few days to get tested for coronavirus and isolate themselves.

"On observing symptoms of COVID-19, I took a test for the same. The results have arrived positive. My health condition is satisfactory but I have been hospitalised on the recommendation of doctors.

If anyone has contacted me in the last few days, kindly subject yourselves to quarantine and get tested," Shah tweeted in Hindi.

The home minister was attending his office in the North Block regularly, besides working from home.

The last known public function which Shah attended was on Saturday at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) where he addressed a webinar on the occasion of the 100th death anniversary of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. About 50 people were physically present at the event.

Government sources said the home minister was also present at the last meeting of the Union Cabinet held on Wednesday by following strict social distancing norms along with wearing of masks.

There has been a strict protocol at the PM house in the last few months which includes temperature checks, Aarogya Setu check and no use of internal cars to ferry people, the sources said.

Shah's personal staff members have gone for isolation but it is immediately not known whether Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and other officers of the home ministry have decided to keep them in isolation.

As the news about Shah testing positive spread, wishes of speedy recovery for the home minister started pouring in.

Senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Chief Ministers Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), B S Yediyurappa (Karnataka) and Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam) took to Twitter wishing the home minister a speedy recovery.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also expressed speedy recovery to the home minister.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also tweeted her best wishes to Shah and said "...wishing him a speedy recovery. My prayers are with him and his family!"

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal prayed for his speedy recovery.

(With PTI inputs.)

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.