Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the winter session of the Odisha Assembly scheduled to begin on November 20, the three-day COVID-19 test for all the MLAs, Assembly Secretariat employees and media persons began on Tuesday.
While the Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro underwent the test, the remaining MLAs, Assembly employees and the media persons will undergo the test in a phased manner till November 19.
Maintaining that those tested negative will be allowed to enter the Assembly premises, the Speaker said that there will be another round of tests during the session.
Referring to the participation of the MLAs in the house session, Patro said that the legislators can also participate in the session through video conferencing from the collectorate office in their respective districts.
It may be mentioned that as many as 136 out of 757 samples of MLAs, staff and journalists had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the monsoon session of the Odisha Assembly in September.
