Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told BJP MPs that the ongoing Parliament session would not be curtailed because of the coronavirus but asked the party’s leaders not to hold any mass gatherings till April 15.

Addressing the MPs at the closed-door weekly parliamentary party meeting, Modi lauded the efforts of doctors, nurses and other government officials in battling the coronavirus and asked the leaders to help spread awareness among the common people over ways to tackle the challenge.

Amid rumours that the budget session of Parliament could be adjourned sine die before the scheduled date of April 3, Modi ruled out such a possibility.

“However, you should not hold any kind of agitations or campaigns. Whatever you have to raise, do so through written petitions,” the Prime Minister said, according to MPs present at the meeting.

Minister in isolation

Union minister V. Muraleedharan, who recently visited a Kerala-based medical institute whose hospital later reported a coronavirus case, has placed himself under home quarantine as a precaution although he tested negative for the infection.

The minister of state for external affairs had visited the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMT) in Thiruvananthapuram on March 14. A doctor from the institute’s hospital who had returned from Spain has tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Last Saturday, I had visited Research Div. of a Medical Institute, whose Hospital later reported a COVID-19 +ve case. As a measure of abundant precaution I am in home quarantine since then. Have tested negative for COVID-19,” Muraleedharan tweeted.

“No to panic! Yes to precaution!” the minister added.

Sources had earlier said Muraleedharan, a senior BJP leader from Kerala, had opted for self-isolation at his Delhi residence.

SCTIMT director Dr Asha Kishore said reports that the minister had come in contact with the doctor who tested positive for the coronavirus were “completely wrong”.

“The minister came to a different building and at a different time, and only four people met him, and it was a holiday, and none of them had contact with the patient. This is all false news,” she said.

Additional reporting by PTI