There is no need to panic about the viral infection, Pawar told reporters.
“One of my cabinet colleagues, Dhananjay Munde, has tested positive for COVID-19. However, the administration is taking care in the state and necessary instructions to check its spread have been given to officials,” he said.
Munde’s office also confirmed that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. The variant details were not revealed.
A staff member from the minister’s office stated that he tested positive on the final day (December 20) of the state legislature’s winter session in Nagpur.
“The minister went home on December 21, remained in isolation and took the medication prescribed by doctors. There are no symptoms now and he has already started holding video conferences and taking follow-ups on several works,” he said.
“Some of his office staffers also felt unwell, but we all followed the protocol and avoided mixing with people. Now, none of us have any symptoms of the infection,” the staffer added.
According to the updated data from the Union health ministry on Sunday, the country recorded 656 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, bringing the total number of active cases to 3,742.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified the new JN.1 strain as a separate variant of interest due to its rapid spread. However, it has stated that the global public health risk posed by this variant is low.
On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 50 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 81,72,135, which occurred nearly three years ago.
This information was provided by the health department in a bulletin.
Out of the new cases, nine were caused by the JN.1 variant, increasing the total number of infections linked to this sub-variant in the state to 10.
Comments are closed.