MP journalist who attended Kamal Nath presser with 200 others tests positive for Covid-19

The journalist was tested for coronavirus after his daughter, who had recently visited the UK, was diagnosed with Covid-19.

The journalist was present at the press conference held on 20 March where senior Congress leader Kamal Nath announced his resignation as MP chief minister | PTI

Bhopal: A senior journalist who attended the 20 March press conference where senior Congress leader Kamal Nath announced his resignation as Madhya Pradesh chief minister has tested positive for Covid-19. 

The press conference, held at the chief minister’s bungalow in Bhopal, was attended by over 200 members of the media. The journalist’s daughter, who had recently visited the UK, has also tested positive. She took the test in the days before the press conference.

“After a woman tested positive for coronavirus in Bhopal, test samples of 10 people who reportedly came in touch with the patient were sent for examination,” Bhopal’s chief medical health officer Sudhir Kumar Dehariya told journalists.

“Nine people have tested negative for coronavirus, while the father of the woman has tested positive for coronavirus”.

The patients will be admitted to AIIMS-Bhopal, he added. His daughter is already under treatment at the facility, ThePrint has learnt.

Meanwhile, other journalists who attended the press conference have been asked to self-quarantine.

15 Covid-19 cases in Madhya Pradesh

In Madhya Pradesh, five other people tested positive for Covid-19 in Indore Wednesday morning, one of them a resident of Ujjain. With these, the number of coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh now stands at 15 — six in Jabalpur, five in Indore, one each in Gwalior and Shivpuri, and two in Bhopal. 

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has pledged one month’s salary to the Chief Minister Relief Fund to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. He has also asked MLAs to establish outreach with citizens and encourage social distancing. 

Even so, the ruling party itself has made light of social-distancing directives from health experts as well as the central government. 

On Monday, nearly all of the BJP’s 107 Madhya Pradesh legislators assembled at the party’s office in Bhopal to attend a meeting meant to elect a leader of the legislative party. 

Elected to the post, Chouhan was subsequently seen being greeted by several party members from close quarters — through handshakes, garlanding as well as hugs. 

On Tuesday, a similar number of MLAs assembled at the Madhya Pradesh assembly for a trust vote that the new government won.