JANAKPURDHAM, AUG 7

Province 2 Internal Affairs and Law Minister Gyanendra Yadav has contracted COVID and has been staying in ‘isolation at his home as per the doctor’s advice’ since he tested positive for the virus’.

Yadav, who is asymptomatic, has urged everyone who came in contact with him in the past two weeks to take polymerase chain reaction test.

The minister had participated in a meeting of provincial internal affairs ministers in Kathmandu last week.

The provincial ministers had also met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa on the occasion.

The meeting was attended by the home secretary and Nepal Police inspector general.

Yadav, who is quite active in public progammes, is expected to have come in contact with many.

Meanwhile, Epidemiology and Disease Control Division will determine if Oli will have to undergo coronavirus test since Yadav and Oli had taken part in the same programme on July 29.

Director of EDCD Basudev Pandey said, “We are going to trace people who came in contact with Minister Yadav. We will also analyse what was the distance between Yadav and other participants, including the PM.

A short interaction with a COVID-19 positive case from a distance might not infect other people if the coronavirus carrier is not symptomatic,” Pandey said.