Congress Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda tests positive for COVID-19

On Sunday, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda tested positive for the novel coronavirus. He revealed that other tests were being conducted on the advice of doctors. Hooda appealed to people who had come in contact with him in the last few days to isolate and get themselves tested for COVID-19.

He exuded confidence in recovering from the virus at the earliest with the blessings of people. A three-time Lok Sabha MP from Rohtak, Hooda was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana in March 2020. He is also a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee. Recently, he toured the Baroda Assembly constituency ahead of the by-election necessitated by the demise of Congress MLA Krishan Hooda. 

Key politicians in Haryana test positive

So far, Haryana has recorded 14,911 active novel coronavirus cases while 58,580 patients have been discharged and 781 fatalities have been reported. Hooda's fellow parliamentarians- Union Minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia, Hisar MP Brijendra Singh and Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini have also tested positive for COVID-19. Moreover, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, MLAs Ranjit Singh Chautala, JP Dalal, Mool Chand Sharma and Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta are among the legislators who have contracted the novel coronavirus recently. 

Read: Haryana Reports Its Highest One-day Jump In COVID-19 Deaths, Cases

COVID-19 crisis in India

Currently, there are 41,13,811 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in India out of which 31,80,865 patients have been discharged while 70,626 deaths have been recorded. At present, there are 8,62,320 active cases. With 73,642 persons recovering from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the country's recovery rate soared to 77.32%. The case fatality rate stands at 1.72%.

Earlier in the day, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a meeting with the Health Secretaries of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Puducherry on the containment of COVID-19 in 35 districts under their jurisdiction. Underscoring the need to break the chain of transmission, he called for focusing on the people having co-morbidities and the elderly population, strengthening containment measures, and scaling up testing to decrease the positivity rate below 5%. The respective state health secretaries discussed the roadmap for the next month. 

Read: Speed Up Work On Big Projects, Haryana Dy CM Dushyant Tells PWD