A Gujarat Congress legislator Imran Khedawala late on Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19. His report came barely a few hours after he met Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy CM Nitin Patel and others to review the pandemic situation in Ahmedabad.
Mr. Khedawala was immediately taken to SVP hospital where he was admitted for treatment. According to sources in the civic body, he has mild symptoms.
Mr. Khedawala is a legislator representing Jamalpur Khadia, a part of coronavirus hotspot in Ahmedabad city that has been brought under curfew in a drastic measure to contain the spread of the virus. The disease has already claimed 13 lives in the city so far while infecting 373 persons.
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“Mr. Khedawala attended a meeting called by the CM regarding Coronavirus outbreak in the city. He had given his samples and after he attended the meeting in a major mistake. He should have avoided it,” CM’s Secretary Ashwani Kumar said in a late night media statement.
He added that though proper social distancing was maintained in the meeting, the CM will undergo a medical check up and go by the medical experts’ advice on Wednesday.
Significantly, Mr. Khedawala also attended a press conference, where other health officials were present and later, the health secretary used the same chair while giving the daily briefing about the pandemic to the media.
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Meanwhile, according to officials in the municipal corporation, Mr. Khedawala helped the civic body and health department in persuading Tablighi Jamaat members and those who came in contact with them to go for testing as walled city areas of Ahmedabad saw major spike of cases in the last 10 days.
There are six areas from the fortified city that come under the hotspot - Shahpur, Kalupur, Jamalpur-Khadia, Gaikwad Haveli and Dariyapur. Danilimda, an area outside the fortified city, is also under the curfew as announced by the State government on Tuesday evening.