Karnataka BJP MLA tests +ve for COVID-19

Karnataka BJP legislator Paranna Munavalli who was asymptomatic and at home quarantine tested positive for coronavirus. The district health officials were trying to trace Munavalli's contacts and quarantine them.

Koppal (Karnataka):Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) legislator from Karnataka's Koppal district Paranna Munavalli tested positive for coronavirus, an official said on Monday.

"As Munavalli, 58, is asymptomatic, he is in home quarantine at Gangavathi and under treatment, after he tested positive for the infection on Sunday," district health official Eshwar Savadi said.

Munavali is MLA from Gangavathi, about 370km northwest of Bengaluru in the southern state in Koppal district.

"We are trying to ascertain when, where and how Munavalli would have contracted the virus as he was busy with development and Covid-related works in his home constituency till Saturday," Savadi said.

The district health officials are also trying to trace Munavalli's contacts and quarantine them.

Munvalli is the latest lawmaker to be infected in the state's northern region after Congress MLAs P.T. Paremeshwar Naik of Huvina Hadgali Assembly segment in Ballari district, Ajay Singh from Jewargi in Kalaburagi district, Rajashekar Patil of Humnabad and his MLC brother Chandrashekar Patil in Bidar district, BJP's Bidar Lok Sabha member Bhagwanth Khuba and BJP's MLA Rajkumar Teklur from Sedam in Kalaburagi district contracted the virus.

"All the legislators are at home or institutional quarantine for treatment as they are asymptomatic," added Savadi.

A record 4,120 new positive cases ob Sunday shot up the state's Covid-19 tally to a whopping 63,772, including 39,370 active after 23,095 were discharged so far, with 1,290 during the day.

With 91 more patients succumbing to the infection across the state in the day, the death toll touched 1,331 since March 9.

As the epic centre of the pandemic in the state, Bengaluru reported 2,156 fresh cases in a single day on Sunday, taking its tally to 31,777, including 24,316 active after 6,793 were discharged so far, with 253 on Sunday, while 667 died of the infection till date, with 36 in the last 24 hours," said the official.

Of the 579 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) across the state, 332 are in Bengaluru.

"Of the 35,834 samples tested during the day, 28,929 turned negative. Of the 10,20830 tests conducted since March 9, 9,27,945 were negative," said the official.

(IANS report)