Joint secretary Lav Agarwal tests positive for COVID-19

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health, announced on Friday (August 14) that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has gone into home isolation as per health department guidelines.

“Dear all, just to inform that I have tested positive for Covid-19 and initiating home isolation as per guidelines. Requesting all my friends, colleagues for self monitoring. Contact tracing will be done by health team. Hoping to see everyone soon,” the 48-year-old said in a tweet.

Dear All,Just to inform that I have tested positive for Covid 19 and initiating home isolation as per guidelines. Requesting all my friends, colleagues for self monitoring. Contact tracing will be done by Health Team. Hoping to see everyone soon.

— lavagarwal (@lavagarwal) August 14, 2020

Health ministry media briefings are now addressed by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

A 1996-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Agarwal belongs to Uttar Pradesh. He was entrusted with the responsibility of conducting national media briefings to provide up-to-date information on the COVID-19 situation in the country throughout April and May.

Notably, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who had tested positive for COVID-19 a few days back, tested negative on Friday. Shah took to Twitter to announce the news.

Meanwhile, the country witnessed another significant rise in the single-day COVID-19 cases with fresh 64,553 infections and 1,007 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours. The total death toll has risen to 48,040.