Corona scare hits Kerala govt; Vijayan, 3 ministers test

At least three other ministers, Assembly SpeakerP Sreeramakrishnan, Chief Secretary Dr Vishwas Mehta and DGP Loknath Behera also went on self-quarantine on Friday after they came in the primary contact list of Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan who tested positive for COVID-19. Since being in quarantine, Vijayan will miss the Independence Day function on Saturday and Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran will hoist the flag at the main function in the state capital, the CMO sources said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and three other ministers on Friday tested negative for coronavirus, hours after quarantining themselves as they came in the primary contact list of an official who has contracted the virus, official sources said. The results of antigen tests of Vijayan and Health Minister K K Shailaja returned negative, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) sources told PTI.

Ministers A C Moideen and V S Sunil Kumar also tested negative, official sources said. At least three other ministers, Assembly SpeakerP Sreeramakrishnan, Chief Secretary Dr Vishwas Mehta and DGP Loknath Behera also went on self-quarantine on Friday after they came in the primary contact list of Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan who tested positive for COVID-19.

Since being in quarantine, Vijayan will miss the Independence Day function on Saturday and Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran will hoist the flag at the main function in the state capital, the CMO sources said. E P Jayarajan, Ramachandran Kadanapally and K T Jaleel are the other three ministers under self-quarantine. Gopalakrishnan had coordinated the search and rescue operations at the Karipur International Airport after an Air India Express flight had veered off the table top runway and crashed into a valley and broke into pieces on August 7, killing 18 people and injuring over 170 others.

The Collector had come in contact with the Chief Minister, other ministers and senior state government officials when a high-level delegation of them visited the accident site and the injured at the hospital a day after the incident. Besides the collector, the Deputy Collector and the Assistant Collector, the Superintendent of Police were among 20 odd people who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

"I have been tested positive today and I am asymptomatic," Gopalakrishnan told PTI. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who had also gone to the Karipur airport, has, however, not gone on quarantine,Raj Bhavan sources said.

Samples of a passenger who died in the mishap tested positive for the pathogen, prompting Shailaja to ask all those engaged in the rescue operations to go on self-quarantine and get themselves tested..