India: UP minister Atul Garg tests positive for COVID-19

Lucknow, Aug 18 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Atul Garg was hospitalised on Tuesday after he said he had tested positive for COVID-19.

The 63-year-old Garg, an MLA from Ghaziabad, requested all those who came in contact with him recently to get tested for the disease.

"On August 15, RT-PCR test was done and I had tested negative. Yesterday, in the rapid test conducted at around 9 pm, I tested positive. People who came in contact with me from August 16 to August 18 should get themselves tested," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Garg was admitted to the private Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital, Kaushambi in Ghaziabad, where doctors stated his condition to be stable.

"The minister was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday. According to preliminary investigations done at the hospital, his condition is stable now. He is under observation and a team of doctors attending on him, as he is a known diabetic and hypertensive, a hospital official told PTI.

Two UP ministers, Kamal Rani Varun and Chetan Chauhan, recently succumbed to COVID-19.