Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday became the latest Union Minister to be infected by coronavirus.
Taking to Twitter, Irani said: “It is rare for me to search for words while making an announcement; hence here’s me keeping it simple – I’ve tested positive for COVID and would request those who came in contact with me to get themselves tested at the earliest.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, AYUSH Minister Shripad Y. Naik, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari, Prahlad Singh Patel and Ramdas Athawale are the other central ministers who had contracted the virus. Chief Ministers like Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Karnataka’s B.S. Yediyurappa had also tested positive.
With 43,893 new cases, infections in India are now close to 8 million. As many as 508 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 1,20,010. Of the 79,90,322 cases, 6,10,803 are active infections, while 72,59,509 patients have been discharged. Kerala is the largest contributor of cases for the fifth consecutive day. The positive aspect is that the mortality rate is still low and India has one of the highest recovery rates in the world at 90%, despite being the 2nd most populated country.
