Maharashtra cabinet minister, five staff members test COVID-19 positive

As the coronavirus cases in Maharashtra continues to surge, another state Cabinet Minister reportedly tested positive.

Moreover, five members of the personal staff working for the minister also tested positive for the virus.

All of them are in stable condition and have been put in isolation.

This becomes the third case of a Maharashtra cabinet minister testing positive for COVID-19.

Cabinet Minister and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, were diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier, and have recovered.

Maharashtra continues to be the epicenter of the coronavirus spread where the number of cases has witnessed an even large spike recently. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with more than 97,000 positive cases of infection and over 3,500 deaths.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday hinted at the fact that lockdown could be re-imposed again if the relaxations to the COVI-19 lockdown turn out to be risky.

"If the relaxations to the lockdown start turning out to be risky, we will be compelled to re-impose the lockdown," Maharashtra CM tweeted.