Himachal ex-CM Virbhadra Singh stable after testing positive

The condition of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, 86, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday for the second time in two months, is stable

The condition of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, 86, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday for the second time in two months, is stable.

Virbhadra Singh, a former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, has been diagnosed with Covid for the second time in two months in Shimla. (HT file photo)

“His (pulse oxygen) saturation is 96 and his condition is stable,” Dr Janak Raj, the medical superintendent of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), said in a statement on Saturday.

Virbhadra Singh was hospitalised at IGMC when he complained of breathing difficulty on April 23, the day he arrived in Shimla after being discharged from a private hospital in Mohali, where he underwent Covid treatment. He had first tested positive on April 13.

The veteran Congress leader, who was undergoing treatment in a separate room in the IGMC’s cardiology department till Friday, has now been shifted to a makeshift facility in the medical college.

Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha, 64, a former member of Parliament, has also tested positive. “By the blessings of goddess Bhima Kali, I’m healthy and in doctors’ care,” she tweeted from Virbhadra Singh’s handle.

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur wished his predecessor a speedy recovery.