Bengaluru: After Bommai, Ashwath Narayan tests Covid positive

Bengaluru: Ahead of the Assembly and Council sessions scheduled to be from September 21 and 30, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan on Saturday said he has tested positive for COVID-19. "In anticipation of the upcoming Assembly sessions, I underwent a #COVID19 test on Saturday and my results have returned positive. I am asymptomatic and will be under home isolation," Narayan tweeted.

He has requested all those who have come in contact with him to take the necessary precautions. In the wake of the pandemic, Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri has made it mandatory for all those attending it to undergo RT-PCR test for COVID-19 infection, 72 hours prior to the start of the monsoon session from September 21.

Narayan is the latest in the list of Ministers in Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's cabinet who have tested positive for coronavirus.

Earlier this week, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai confirmed that he is asymptomatic and is under self-isolation. "The infection was confirmed in the Covid-19 test yesterday for a working boy in our home. Against this backdrop I have also been tested and I have been infected, have no symptoms and are healthy and isolated at home," he had tweeted.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister K Gopalaiah had tested positive for COVID. Prior to that, Yediyurappa and his Ministers including B Sriramulu, C T Ravi, B C Patil, Anand Singh, Byrathi Basavaraj, Prabhu Chavan, A Shivaram Hebbar, K S Eshwarappa and Shashikala Jolle had tested positive and have now recovered.

On Friday, Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri along with other political leaders underwent a Covid-19 tests. This comes ahead of the upcoming monsoon session of the Assembly, which is scheduled to begin from September 21. All MLAs will be tested for COVID-19 on every fifth day of the functioning of the monsoon session. The Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council sessions are expected to be held from September 21 and 30.

Last week, newly elected Rajya Sabha member Ashok Gasti, who was admitted to a private hospital after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, succumbed to the infection. Fifty-five-year-old Gasti, who was admitted to Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road on September 2 and diagnosed with severe COVID-19 pneumonia, passed away at 10:31 pm, hospital director Manish Rai said in a statement.

Vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah condoled the demise of Gasti.