Day after being admitted to a hospital in Bengaluru, expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. She was shifted to the trauma care ward of Victoria Hospital in the city. Her condition was reported to be stable.
Her illness comes at a time when she was just a week away from being released from the prison on January 27. She will now have to remain quarantined in the hospital for 10 more days.
Sasikala, a close aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, was admitted to the Government Bowring Hospital on Wednesday after she complained of fever and breathlessness.
She had developed symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness, the very feature of COVID-19, but her previous Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR test reports turned negative. However, the doctors felt that the infection in her lungs was significant and there was a need for re-test.
In the second test she was found positive and was admitted to the Victoria Hospital. A health bulletin issued by the hospital late on Thursday said, "COVID-19 Pneumonia (severe based on CT Scan - 16/25), hypertension, hypothyroidism on treatment."
Sasikala, lodged at the Parappana Agrahara Prison here, was sentenced to four years imprisonment in February 2017 in the Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case.