UP health minister, who attended party with singer Kanika Kapoor, tests negative for COVID-19
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, who had attended a party with Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor days before she tested positive for coronavirus, tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, the King George Medical University here said.
The 66-year-old minister had gone into self-isolation after undergoing the testing here on Friday, soon after Kapoor announced that she had tested positive for coronavirus.
"Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh has tested negative for COVID-19," KGMU spokesperson Dr Sudhir Singh said. "Samples of 28 people who came in contact with him have also tested negative," he said.
Jai Pratap Singh told PTI that he received a call from the KGMU vice chancellor informing him that his tests came back negative.
"I have tested negative for COVID-19. My entire family has tested negative (for COVID-19). Five members of my family were tested and all of them have tested negative," he said.
He and his family, however, have been advised to stay at home for the next 14 days, the minister said.
On Thursday, Singh was in Greater Noida to address a press conference to talk about the BJP-led state government's achievements over the past three years.
Three MLAs -- Pankaj Singh, Dhirendra Singh and Tejpal Nagar, some administrative officials and several journalists who were present at the press conference also went into self-isolation after it became known that the minister had come in contact with Kapoor.
Kapoor, who became the first Bollywood celebrity to test positive for coronavirus, landed in Lucknow from the United Kingdom and was admitted to a city hospital after she showed signs of flu.
Before she tested positive for COVID-19, she attended three parties in Lucknow. Nearly 300 people attended these parties, her father Rajiv Kapoor had said on Friday.
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Ranchi: Temple guard bludgeoned to death during robbery attempt, 3 held
Ranchi (PTI): A 60-year-old security guard of a temple in Ranchi was bludgeoned to death with a stone during a robbery attempt, police said on Saturday.
The incident happened late on Thursday at the Jagannath Temple in the Dhurwa Smart City area, they said.
"Three persons were arrested on Friday for killing the security guard. They confessed to the crime and told police that the victim had identified them. Therefore, in fear of being caught, they killed him by attacking him with a stone on his head," SSP Rakesh Ranjan said.
"Thereafter, they took money from the donation box and fled the scene. Two of them have criminal antecedents," he added.
Ranjan said the investigators recovered Rs 3 lakh in cash that had been robbed, the stone with blood-stained marks, and the iron rod used to break open the lock of the donation box kept there.
An FIR in this regard was lodged at the Dhurwa police station, he said, adding that the accused were sent to judicial custody by a court.
