In a shocking development, former Indian Prime Minister and Veteran Congress leader Manmohan Singh has on Monday tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection. The development has come when the nation is bracing up for the second wave and on the same day when the Delhi government has announced a six-day lockdown in its territory from April 20. 

The 88-year-old octagenarian has been admitted to the trauma center of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi after contracting the novel coronavirus. The doctors said that the former Prime Minister had mild symptoms for COVID-19 and is doing stable. Though having mild symptoms, Manmohan Singh was moved to the hospital for further treatments. 

According to reports, he was hospitalized owing to his age factor and comorbidities as he had undergone cardiac bypass surgery in 2009. In 2009, the veteran Congress leader was operated on for a redo bypass cardiac surgery and it was done by Dr. Ramakant Panda, who was a thoracic surgeon and vice-chairman of the Asian Heart Institute.

The former Prime Minister was admitted to AIIMS in May last year after he complained of chest pain. The reports say that he has now been getting monitored by a team of doctors and the Congress leaders and members of the grand old party have been expressing their wishes to him for a speedy recovery. 

On Sunday, Manmohan Singh had written to his successor Narendra Modi in which the former had highlighted five suggestions for combating the second and more severe COVID-19 wave in India. In a two-page letter to PM Modi, the veteran Congress leader said that one must not look at absolute numbers, but the percentage of the population vaccinated. 

He also suggested Modi to expand the COVID-19 vaccination programme which forms a big part of the pandemic management and we must resist the temptation to look at absolute numbers vaccinated and instead focus on the percentage of population vaccinated. Noting that India has vaccinated only a small fraction of its population, the former Prime Minister said he is certain that, "we can do much better and very quickly with the right policy design."