Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain tests positive for coronavirus
In an unfortunate turn of events, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has tested positive for coronavirus. After his fever worsened, he was advised to take the second test. He had tested negative in his first test. In fact, earlier today, Aam Aadmi Party's Atishi, who is a representative of Kalkaji constituency also tested positive. The number of cases in Delhi stands at 44,688.
A few days back, Jain's senior in the Cabinet, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal developed a fever. He was tested for the disease and the reports came as negative. Later, he expressed gratitude towards his well-wishers. "I thank everyone for their good wishes and blessings," he told. Other politicians who tested positive are Congress' Sanjay Jha and BJP's Jyotiraditya Scindia (along with his mother).
The news about Jain's health comes days after he attended a meeting, convened by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, to assess the coronavirus crisis in Delhi. Kejriwal was also present there. Shah held another all-party meeting where he promised testing would be ramped up and would be taken to 18,000/day by June 20. Representatives of AAP, BJP, Congress attended this meeting.
Last week, Jain claimed that community transmission — a stage of the disease where the source of infection can't be traced — has started in Delhi. "There is transmission in the community, but whether it is community transmission or not that can be declared only by the Centre. It is a technical term," he had said. This theory was, however, declined by the Centre.
On a related note, the apex court had earlier snapped at the state government for treating coronavirus patients "worse than animals". The court was particularly disturbed by the reports from Lok Nayak Hospital where dead bodies of coronavirus patients were left unattended in the lobby. And today, the court fumed on learning that cases have been filed against doctors.
The bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and MR Shah referred to reports of a doctor being suspended from a North Delhi hospital for flagging his concerns about health infrastructure. An FIR was also registered. "You can't threaten doctors for bringing out the truth," the bench said, and warned against "shooting the messengers". SC demanded that the harassment must stop immediately.
