Uttarakhand CM quarantined after cabinet minister tests COVID-19 positive

Update: 2020-05-31 16:35 GMT
Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Yadav and few other ministers have been placed under home quarantine (Photo: Trivendra Singh Yadav-Facebook)

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat along with all other ministers who attended a cabinet meeting on May 29 have been placed under home quarantine after a Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj who was present at the same meeting, tested positive for COVID19. Satpal Maharaj is admitted to AIIMS in Rishikesh, along with his family members, Harish Thapliyal, PRO, AIIMS, Rishikesh informed ANI.

Uttarakhand Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik said that all the cabinet members who attended the meeting on May 29 will have to follow the directives advised by the Health Department in accordance with the Centre’s guidelines. According to Pandey, the cabinet minister’s wife Amrita Rawat tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday (May 30) while his two sons, their wives and a one-and-a-half-year-old grandson, along with 17 other people, were found infected with the virus on Sunday (May 31).

So far, the state has reported around 750 COVID-19 cases, out of which 102 people have recovered. In the last one week, the state has reported a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, yet the hilly areas of the state lack declared number of containment zones.

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Districts such as Nainital have reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the state, with more than 220 COVID-19 positive individuals, yet the state does not have a single containment zone. Savin Bansal, District Magistrate of Nainital told Hindustan Times that most of the cases reported in the last week were migrants who returned from other states such as Gujarat, Delhi, and Maharashtra.

Those people were immediately quarantined at institutional facilities and their collected samples were tested. He added that these people did not come in contact with local residents of the state so the infection could not spread in the community. Hence, they have not declared any containment zone in the district.

Uttarakhand has a total of 31 containment zones in districts such as Haridwar (15), Dehradun (8), Pauri Garhwal (2), Udham Singh Nagar (4), and Tehri Garhwal (2).

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