New Delhi: The rapid spread of COVID-19 in Delhi has reached functionaries of the Delhi government and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday. State health minister Satyendar Jain, AAP national spokesperson and MLA Atishi and two senior advisers in the government tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Jain was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital on Tuesday after he developed high fever and his oxygen levels dropped on Monday night. This was his second test report for COVID-19 that showed him to be positive for the virus. In the first test, he was found negative.
Fifty-five-year-old Jain, who on Sunday had attended a high-level meeting on Delhi’s COVID-19 situation convened by Union home minister Amit Shah, had till Monday been actively visiting designated hospitals and interacting with officials on enhancing the city’s preparedness for spread of the virus, which is expected to spread to around 5.5 lakh people by July end.
However, as he developed fever and breathlessness, both signs of coronavirus, he was admitted to RGSSH, where his second test confirmed that he was positive. He was stated to be in a “stable” condition but on oxygen support due to his breathing problem.
Meanwhile, Atishi, who was the architect of Delhi’s education reforms as adviser to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and later was also chosen to contest the Lok Sabha election from East Delhi in 2019, also tested positive for the virus. As national spokesperson of AAP and member of its Political Affairs Committee, she was very active recently in putting forth the party’s views on various issues, including registration of an FIR against Sir Ganga Ram Hospital over testing issues.
Atishi’s swab samples were taken on Tuesday after she reported mild symptoms of the virus and later her report came positive. Likewise, Akshay Marathe, an advisor to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Anindita Mathur, advisor to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, were also tested on Tuesday after they showed symptoms of the coronavirus and they too were later found to be positive.
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All three of them have since been told to undergo home isolation, even as contact tracing has been initiated to see if others who interacted with them too contracted the virus or not.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases continued to surge in Delhi on Wednesday. As per the data released late in the evening, the total cases crossed the 47,000 mark to reach 47,102, with 2,414 cases being added during the past 24 hours.
Likewise, the number of deaths in Delhi rose to 1,904, with 67 more people succumbing to the deadly virus during the previous 24 hours.
In keeping with the decisions taken at Sunday’s high-level meeting, Delhi has ramped up its testing from the 4,000-5,000 samples per day figure earlier, which had also earned it the wrath of the Supreme Court last week. The court pulled up the administration for allowing testing to actually drop between the months of April and May.
On Monday (June 15) and Tuesday (June 16), a total of 16,618 samples were collected for testing in Delhi, showing a near two-fold increase in testing levels.