Sharad Pawar tests Covid-negative, goes in isolation

Mumbai, Aug 17 (IANS) Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar has tested negative for Covid-19, an aide said here on Monday.

The 79-year-old NCP patriarch had undergone a test last week at Breach Candy Hospital after a couple of his security personnel and some aides had tested positive.

Though Pawar had not come in contact with any of them, as a precaution, he has gone into self-isolation for at least four days cutting off all public contact, the aide, requesting anonymity, told IANS.

It was not clear if any other Pawar family members or other NCP leaders and ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders who are in regular contact with each other have undergone similar tests.

Till date, around half-a-dozen state ministers have been infected, besides independent MP from Amravati Navneet Kaur-Rana and her husband Ravi Rana.