By Soudhriti Bhabani

Kolkata, Aug 4 (IANS): After Mohammed Salim, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member, tested Covid-19 positive on Monday, the party leadership decided to ask all state secretariat members and party cadres, who regularly visited the party headquarters at the Alimuddin Street, to undergo coronavirus test.

Senior CPI-M leader Shyamal Chakraborty and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) state secretary Anadi Sahu had also tested Covid-19 positive, recently. All these leaders visited the party headquarters regularly.

CPI-M state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra said all CPI-M state secretariat members and state party office employees would have to undergo Covid-19 test and has made arrangements for that.

Collection of swab samples will begin on Wednesday. Necessary arrangements have been made with state-run laboratories to collect samples of the party members.

Mishra also urged the party members to stay indoors for the next few days and observe their health conditions.

The CPI-M members were mostly operating online during the Covid-19 lockdown, but recently they had a few state secretariat meetings at the party headquarters.

Earlier, Md Salim twitted, "I have tested positive for coronavirus with very mild symptoms but I got myself admitted to a hospital as per the advice of my attending doctor".

The decision was aimed at avoiding the risk of infection to friends, family and neighbours, he said. He got himself admitted to a private hospital near EM Bypass in Kolkata.

CPI-M sources said Shyamal Chakraborty was on the oxygen support, but his health was improving. The condition of Andadi Sahu was stable, they added.

On Monday, West Bengal reported 2,716 cases, which took the tally above 78,000. For the past 24 hours, 53 fatalities were also reported. There are 21,683 active cases in the state.