Bengaluru: Two more Karnataka Congress legislators tested Covid-19 positive, while the party’s state unit office in the city has been shut after three employees were infected with the virus, an official said on Saturday.
“Our party MLAs Ajay Singh from Jewargi Assembly segment in Kalaburagi district and Prasad Abbayya from Hubli-Dharwad East seat tested positive on Friday and are under treatment at the designated hospitals,” party’s spokesman M.A. Saleem told IANS.
The party’s office on Queen’s Road in the city centre has been shut till Monday after three staffers tested positive for the corona virus symptoms.
“As the party’s office is located in a containment area, we have shut it after the three staffers had contracted the symptoms and tested positive,” said Saleem.
Singh, son of former Congress Chief Minister Dharam Singh, tweeted that he was asymptomatic and would be in quarantine for two weeks in Bengaluru.
“I request all those people who were my primary contacts to take precautions and stay safe,” Singh said in the tweet.
Abbayya got admitted to the state-run KIMS hospital at Hubli in the state’s northwest region after his throat swab tested positive.
Singh and Abbayya attended the oath-taking ceremony of the party’s state unit president D.K. Shivakumar at the party’s office in the city on July 2.
Another party MLA H.D. Ranganath from Kunigal Assembly seat in the neighbouring Tumakur district, who also attended the Shivakumar function, tested positive and is under treatment at a private hospital in the city.
Party’s MLA T.A. Raje Gowda and Chikmagaluru MLC Bhoje Gowda also tested positive and are under treatment in designated hospitals in Chikamagalur.
Chikamagalur is 240km northwest of Bengaluru in the southern state.
BJP’s MLA Rajkumar Patil Teklur from Sedam in the state’s northern Kalaburagi district also tested positive and is under treatment at a private hospital in Bengaluru.
Independent MLA Sharath Bachgowda from Hoskote Assembly segment in Bengaluru Rural also tested Covid-19 positive and is under treatment at a private hospital in the city, an official from his office said.
BJP’s MLA Bharat Shetty from Mangaluru North segment and its MLC M.K. Pranesh also tested positive and have been under treatment since July 5-6.
Veteran state Congressman B. Janardhana Poojary also tested positive for the virus and is under treatment at a private hospital in Mangaluru.
“Poorjary, 83, is under treatment at a private hospital here after he tested positive for Covid on Sunday,” party official Ravi Gowda told IANS earlier.
Mangaluru is about 360km west of Bengaluru in the southern state.
Poojary’s son J. Santhosh said his father’s condition was stable and no cause for worry as he was asymptomatic.
Karnataka’s Independent Lok Sabha member and multi-lingual South Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh tested positive and was under home quarantine.
Sumalatha, 56, is a parliamentary member from Mandya, about 100km from Bengaluru on way to Mysuru.
The celluloid heroine developed symptoms of headache and throat irritation on July 4. Hence, she decided to get tested, as she might have been exposed to the virus during the course of her duty and tour in her constituency.
