NEW DELHI : Days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah tested positive for corona virus, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday confirmed that he has tested positive with the virus as well.
Pradhan took to his official Twitter handle and confirmed, “I got myself tested after exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 and the report came back positive. I have been hospitalised on doctors’ advice. I am healthy.”Mr Pradhan, who described himself as “healthy”, has been admitted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon near Delhi.
He is the second central minister to be infected by the COVID-19 virus; on Sunday Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted that he had tested positive. Mr Shah is also undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital.
Yesterday, another union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had gone into self-quarantine as per protocol after Home Minister Amit Shah tested positive for COVID-19. Prasad went into isolation because he had met Shah on Saturday.

Downplaying reports of him contracting the virus, Ravi Shankar Prasad took to his Twitter saying, “Friends! I’m absolutely fine. To follow the protocol I have isolated myself at home for a few days as I had met Amit Shah ji on Saturday evening for an official meeting.”
Earlier on Sunday, Amit Shah announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and urged everyone who came in contact with him to isolate themselves and get tested.

Shortly after Mr Shah announced that he was COVID-19-positive, it emerged that he had attended a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, at which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were among those present.
All ministers at that meeting were asked to take tests. So far, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Jal Shakti minister, has tested negative. Sources later said that all necessary precautions had been taken during the meeting. They also said that there is a strict coronavirus protocol at PM Modi’s official residence, where cabinet meetings are held.
Apart from Mr Shah and Mr Pradhan, the Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, BS Yediyurappa and Shivraj Singh Chouhan respectively, are also COVID-19-positive, as is Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
All three have been admitted to private hospitals in their states – Mr Yediyurappa to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru, Mr Chouhan to Chirayu Hospital in Bhopal and Mr Purohit to Chennai’s Kavery Hospital.
On Sunday UP minister Kamal Rani Varun, 62, died at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science.
(With Agency Inputs ).

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