Four test COVID-19 positive at Sharad Pawar's Mumbai home; NCP chief tests negative, confirms Rajesh Tope

Mumbai: Four persons at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in south Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday. Pawar’s test results have come out negative, but he will be asked not to go on any state tour for next some days, Tope told reporters. “Two people, including a cook, and two security guards at Pawar’s ‘Silver Oak’ residence in Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus,” the minister said. He said Pawar was taken to Breach Candy Hospital on Sunday for test and the results came out negative. “He is safe and sound…but will ask him not to go on state tour for next some days,” Tope said. As a standard procedure, efforts were on to trace those who came in contact with the cook and security guards in their residential areas, he added. The NCP patriarch recently returned from Karad tehsil in Satara district where he met state cooperation minister Balasaheb Patil. The minister, who is also an NCP leader, tested positive for coronavirus on Friday.