PIB Chief Tests COVID-Positive Days After Presser With Union Mins

The National Media Centre, where his office is located, has been closed and will remain shut on Monday & Tuesday.

PIB Chief Tests Positive Days After Presser With Union Ministers.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

KS Dhatwalia, the Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday, 7 June, after he tested positive for COVID-19.

Dhatwalia on Wednesday, 3 June, had shared the stage with Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prakash Javadekar for a Cabinet briefing and they would now need to self quarantine themselves after the Principal DG, Information, tested positive.

He was admitted to the AIIMS trauma centre at 7 pm, sources said. There was no official word on his health condition.

The National Media Centre (NMC), where his office is located, has been closed and will remain shut on Monday, 8 June, as the entire building will be sanitised, official sources said, reported news agency PTI.

The NMC is likely to remain closed on Tuesday as well and a massive contact-tracing exercise is reportedly being carried out in accordance with the standard protocol.

All activities of the Press Information Bureau, including the holding of press conferences, will take place in the Shastri Bhawan till the NMC is completely sanitised and reopened, the sources said.

The news of Dhatwalia testing positive comes just two days after three Health Ministry officers tested positive leading to weekend disinfection of Nirman Bhavan, the Ministry office complex.