New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone into self-quarantine after developing sore throat and fever, and will get himself tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday, officials said on Monday.
They said the chief minister, who is also a diabetic, had been feeling unwell since Sunday afternoon.
“He has mild fever and sore throat since Sunday afternoon. As advised by doctors, the chief minister will undergo COVID-19 test on Tuesday morning,” officials said.
Officials said the CM had attended a Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning.
The chief minister has been holding most of his meetings via video conferencing from his official residence for the past two months.
On Sunday, in a video post on Twitter, Kejriwal had announced the controversial decision of reserving private and city government-run hospitals for citizens of Delhi alone.
Also read: Delhi Reserves State Government Hospital Beds for Residents With ID Proof
New Delhi is the third worst affected part of the country, after Maharashtra (which surpassed China’s count on Monday) and Tamil Nadu.
“If we open Delhi hospitals for patients from all over, where will Delhi residents go when they get infected with coronavirus?” Kejriwal had said.
Delhi’s health infrastructure is needed to tackle Corona crisis at the moment https://t.co/GnTaCTDVkx
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 7, 2020
Typically about 60-70% of patients admitted to hospitals in Delhi are people traveling from other states to get treatment as the city’s hospitals, among the best in the country, Reuters had reported.
Kejriwal’s decision had triggered outrage, with many pointing out that the chief minister himself was originally a resident of Haryana and then Uttar Pradesh — a fact which would now have precluded him from receiving treatment at many Delhi hospitals had he not had Delhi residence proof or been the chief minister.
(With PTI inputs)