Virbhadra moves to relative's home after 5 staffers test +ve

Tribune News Service
Shimla, December 5

Former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his wife and son Vikaramaditya Singh have moved to a relative’s house after five of his staff members tested positive for coronavirus.

As a precautionary measure, Virbhadra Singh today shifted from his private residence Hollylodge here to his brother-in-law’s house at Kuthad, near Kasauli, along with his wife Pratibha Singh and son Vikramaditya Singh, who is MLA from Shimla (Rural). The test reports of all the three were negative after which they decided to shift to another place. Incidentally, the former Chief Minister is on dialysis, making him a high risk person as far as Covid is concerned.

It was late last night that the reports of the five staff, including a retired IAS officer, TG Negi, who had been Virbhadra’s Principal Secretary, were received. The others who tested Covid positive included his security staff and a domestic help. Negi has been living at Hollylodge since his retirement.

Vikaramaditya wrote in a Facebook post about the development and the fact that he and his parents are safe. He requested everyone to be cautious in case they had come in close contact with people who had tested Covid positive in his house.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today said dedicated vehicles would be provided in select Community Health Centres (CHC) to facilitate the transportation of patients in home isolation to a health institution for treatment, if required.

He said that this had been done as patients in home isolation might face difficulties in getting transport to reach a hospital. “These vehicles will be fitted with a fibre glass to separate the driver’s cabin from the rear seat to facilitate patients, especially in rural areas,” he added.

He asked government officers concerned to ensure wide publicity of the measures so that general public could derive benefit of these.

Thakur said an effective mechanism be evolved to ensure at least one telephone call from a doctor to a patient under treatment at home to enquire after his health. This would not only help in getting effective information about the health parameters of the patients, but also help in boosting the morale of the patients. He said that the employees of Chief Minister Helpline-1100 would make phone calls to Covid-19 patients to boost their morale in the fight against the virus.