Maharashtra Minister Dhananjay Munde Tests Covid Positive, Variant Yet To Be Known

Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde has tested positive for Covid-19.

Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde has tests positive for Covid-19.

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Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde has tested positive for Covid-19, said Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday, adding there is no need to panic about the viral infection, reported PTI. 

"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 while speaking to reporters. 

The information was confirmed by Munde's office also that he has tested positive for the coronavirus without revealing details about the variant. 

A staffer from the minister's office said that Munde tested positive on the last day (December 20) of the state legislature's winter session held in Nagpur, as per the PTI report.

"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.

On Monday, India crossed the 4000-mark of active cases in the country. As per the data by Union health ministry published at 8 am, the country reported as many as 4,054 active cases in the country as against 3,742 reported on Sunday. 

Five cases of JN.1 variant of coronavirus were reported from Maharashtra's Thane. All the five patients, including a woman, were not hospitalised. 

On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 50 new cases of Covid-19 taking the total number of infections since the beginning of the spread of novel coronavirus to 81,72,135 nearly three years ago, said a bulletin by the health department.

Out of all the fresh cases, nine infections were caused by JN.1 strain, increasing the number of infections tied to the new sub-variant in the state to 10.