PHE minister tests +ve; 3455 fresh infections

Raipur: Coronvirus continues to creep into Chhattisgarh, with another cabinet minister — Guru Rudra Kumar —, a BJP leader, an IAS officer and Janata Congress MLas were found infected. Staffers of CIMS, Bilaspur also tested positive for Covid-19 which has affected the rate of RTPCR testing, with thousands of samples pending testing due to lack of staff.
Officials said, there are over 2,000 samples are pending to be tested due to staff shortage — which is leading to delayed reports and may risk silent spread of infection. Moreover, people are hoping that state government sets up lab for genome sequencing in state as the ones sent to Bhubaneswar are taking more than 20 days to reach.
Mahasamund collector Doman Singh, Congress MLA Dhanendra Sahu, BJP leader Srichand Sundrani and JCCJ MLA Pramod Sharma were tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday and Sundrani is under isolation while Sharma was under doctor's observation. Chhattisgarh on Saturday reported 3,455 new cases of coronavirus and four deaths while Raipur reported highest 1,024 Covid cases. The infection rate on Saturday as per health officials has crossed 7.43% with total 13,066 active cases in state. Bastar division which was otherwise being considered a safe zone in terms of spread of virus, record 78 new cases on Saturday with Sukma recording highest 20 new cases. Total active cases in Bastar is 360.
Bilaspur reported 369 new cases including 31 people in a private hospital including many staff members and 40 kids.
While health minister TS Singh Deo’s genome sequence report is awaited and his RTPCR was tested negative on Saturday, he's planning to chair a review meeting, in order to further strategize the plans to fight Covid 19. Riapur district administration has issued control room number for Covid related queries in terms with hospitalization, ambulance, tests etc on a toll free number 78801-00331, 77124-45785, 78801-00332.