Tirupati MLA Karunakar Reddy continues to battle Covid

Tirupati, Oct 9 (IANS) Senior YSRCP leader and Tirupati MLA, Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, is still battling with Coronavirus as his results turned positive again.

"Coronavirus is confirmed in Reddy. Actually, he was infected almost a month back. The virus may still be in the body for up to three months," a district health official told IANS.

His Covid status emerged positive on Wednesday and Thursday as well, making him get admitted in a Chennai hospital for treatment.

"So you can't say he is reinfected, maybe the virus is in the body," he said, even as Reddy tested negative some time back.

A medical official said, "It is only 90 per cent specificity and 10 per cent variation. Maybe some will get false positives, some will get false negatives."

The official said, "Some rapid tests will be only 70 per cent positive and 30 per cent false positive."

"We are considering RT-PCR as 90 per cent correct, in that also variation is there. So we are not considering reinfection, still the virus is there in his body," he added.

The Tirupati MLA is also suffering from the comorbidities of blood pressure and diabetes.