Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, barely a week after chief minister BS Yediyurappa tested positive for the viral infection last Sunday.

Taking to Twitter, Sriramulu said that he was tested after he went down with flu-like symptoms. He added that he was hospitalised because he had been visiting the state’s 30 districts amid the spike in coronavirus cases in the state. The health minister has been admitted to the state-run Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru.

“From the time of Corona’s appearance, I have had the opportunity to visit the 30 districts and work in harmony with the government’s desire to treat people well. It is in this backdrop that I am going to be hospitalised and treated,” he said in Kannada in a series of tweets.

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“All those who have been in contact with me recently have been requested to take precautionary measures,” he added.

To reassure the people of Karnataka, the health minister said, under the leadership of the chief ministers, all the departments of the state government, including the health department, have been working hard against the Covid-19 pandemic.

A week earlier, Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa had tested positive for Covid-19. The chief minister had said that though he was fine, he was being hospitalised as a precaution on the advice of his doctors. He also asked all those who had come in contact with him to go for self-quarantine. The chief minister has not been discharged from hospital yet and is believed to be stable. A day later, Yediyurappa’s elder daughter, BY Padmavati too had tested positive for the infectious disease.

Karnataka on Saturday reported the highest single-day spike of over 7,000 cases and 93 deaths, taking the total number of infections to 1,72,102 and the death toll past the 3,000 mark, a health department statement said.