Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tests positive for Covid-19

Tharoor, 65, tweeted to inform that his sister, his 85-year-old mother and he were all Covid-positive.

"After waiting two days for a test appointment and another day-and-a-half for the results, I finally have confirmation: I'm Covid positive. Hoping to deal with it in a 'positive' frame of mind, with rest, steam and plenty of fluids. My sister and 85-year-old mother are in the same boat," he tweeted.

Shortly after the first tweet, the Congress leader in another post shared that he and his family had taken the two required doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

"Folks should know that my sister has had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine in California and my mother and I took our second Covishield shot on April 8. So we have every reason to hope that though vaccines cannot prevent infection, they will moderate the impact of the Covid virus," he said.

The Kerala MP is the third senior Congress leader to test positive for Covid in the past few days.

On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi informed he was Covid positive and was in home isolation.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had tested positive for Covid-19 too and was admitted to the trauma centre of Delhi's AIIMS, the Congress party had informed on Monday.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday informed that the former Prime Minister's condition was stable.

Manmohan Singh had also received two jabs of vaccine doses (Covaxin) - the first on March 4 and the second on April 3.

This comes as India witnessed a massive spike in Covid-19 deaths with 2023 people succumbing to the virus between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, as per the Ministry of Health website.

Continuing to witness the spike in the daily count, India also recorded  2,95,041 new cases during the same period.

The total death toll due to the virus now stands at 1,82,553.