Telangana Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Saturday took to Twitter to inform that he has been tested positive for COVID-19. The news comes two days ahead of the beginning of the sixth session of Telangana State legislative assembly. He tweeted that his health is fine and urged people had come in contact with him in the past few days to isolate themselves and get tested.
On getting initial symptoms of coronavirus, I got the test done and the report came back positive. My health is fine, I request that all those who have come in contact with me in the last few days, please isolate yourself and get Covid Test done
— Harish Rao Thanneeru (@trsharish) September 5, 2020
Earlier, in June also Mr Rao had gone into self-quarantine after his personal assistant tested positive but the minister had tested negative afterwards.
Keeping in view the assembly session which is scheduled to begin on September 7, Speaker P. Srinivas Reddy and Council Chairman G. Sukhender Reddy on Friday asked all legislators to undergo the tests for COVID-19 by September 6. The COVID-19 test has been declared mandatory for all staff members of the legislature, ministers’ aides, security personnel and media persons covering the session.
Prior to this Home Minister of Telangana, Mohammed Mahmood Ali and few legislators of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had also tested positive over the last few months.
Telangana now has a total of 1,38,395 cases with 32,915 active cases and 877 deaths.
