The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress senior leader Kamal Nath isolated himself on Wednesday after a journalist, who attended his news conference in Bhopal, was tested positive for coronavirus.
The journalist was tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus in Bhopal on Wednesday, five days after Kamal Nath’s press conference. His second sample has been tested positive in AIIMS Bhopal laboratory, confirmed officials at the institute.
Incidentally, this was the press conference where Congress stalwart Kamal Nath had announced that he’ll be stepping down as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, couple of hours ahead of a crucial floor test in the assembly, for which he did not clearly have the numbers. The press conferences were attended by many Congress leaders, dignitaries, journalists and others.
The 55-year-old journalist, a resident of Professors Colony, is the father of the first coronavirus case in Bhopal. The daughter of the journalist had tested positive earlier for coronavirus, which has now infected hundreds of people across the country and killed 11.
His family is under quarantine and his daughter is undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at AIIMS Bhopal.
Other journalists who were present at the press conference have been asked to self-isolate themselves in order to avoid possible transmission.
Health department officials revealed that the journalist, who has now become the second Covid-19 patient in Bhopal, was being traced in various locations including some press conferences since March 18.
The first case of Covid-19 (daughter of this journalist) in Bhopal was reported on March 22 (Sunday). The girl had a travel history to the UK. She had returned from the United Kingdom on March 11 and reached Bhopal by train on March 18. Contact tracing revealed that this girl patient had come in contact with 157 people. CCTV footage and other GPS locations visited by the family of infected is being reviewed.
A number of people who came in touch with the father of this first girl patient have already gone into self-quarantine. Meanwhile, test reports of the mother, brother and maid of the first girl patient are awaited.
With this, the COVID-19 cases in Madhya Pradesh rose to 15 on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, five people had been admitted in different hospitals of Indore, including a woman from neighbouring Ujjain district, tested positive for coronavirus.