In yet another shocking development, VK Sasikala has been going through episodes of hospitalization as the expelled ADMK leader, who was the closest confidante of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, would be shifted to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru, which is the third hospital that the leader gets admitted in the past three days. 

On Thursday, Sasikala has tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection in Victoria Hospital in the city and she has been getting treated in the Intensive Care Unit after she developed a severe lung infection and pneumonia. Her hospitalization triggered by a sudden health setback had shocked his family members and supporters as it has come days ahead of her release from Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, where she has been lodged for the last four years after getting convicted in Disproportionate Assets Case.

On Friday, Victoria Hospital has issued a bulletin concerning Sasikala's health condition in which it has said that she has been getting treated with standard COVID-19 protocol at the Trauma Care Center and she is being continuously monitored and the hospital superintendent has also asserted that Sasikala is doing stable. However, according to a news agency, Sasikala's family has requested that she be shifted to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru.

The reports say that based on the request, Sasikala would be shifted to Manipal Hospital for higher treatments on Friday as she has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The shifting would be marking the third hospital for Sasikala in three days. On Wednesday morning, Sasikala had complained of breathing difficulty in prison. When she was initially treated at the hospital in the prison complex, she was then taken to Bowring Hospital for treatment. She was brought to Bowring Hospital on Wednesday with fever, breathing difficulty, and low oxygen saturation level. 

She was immediately given oxygen support and was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). With the positive symptoms, Sasikala had tested for the COVID-19 pandemic. While two tests at the Bowring Hospital returned negative for the viral infection, it also warranted that she must undergo a CT scan as she was diagnosed with the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). Due to the non-functioning of scanning equipment, her family members had expressed disappointment and asked Bowring Hospital to shift her to a private hospital for further treatments. 

On Thursday afternoon, Sasikala has got discharged from Bowring Hospital and got admitted to Victoria Hospital at around 2.30 pm and the test on her swab samples had confirmed that she had contracted the COVID-19 viral infection. It was the third COVID-19 test that she had gone through and she was tested positive for COVID-19 at around 9.30 pm on Thursday, with the diagnosis of COVID-19 severe pneumonia with Type 2 Diabetes, Hypertension, Hypothyroidism. 

She has been getting treated at the ICU of Victoria Hospital and on Thursday, the hospital has permitted two of Sasikala's relatives, Sivakumar, and Venkatesh, who are also doctors to visit her while her nephew TTV Dhinakaran is also camped in Bengaluru and monitoring the health condition of Sasikala. On Friday, her family members have requested to shift Sasikala to Manipal Hospital for higher treatments following which the reports say she would be getting shifted to Manipal Hospital on Friday. 

Sasikala will be getting released from her four-year prison sentence on January 27, 2021, and while addressing the media on Friday, the Superintendent of Victoria Hospital claimed that Sasikala has been doing stable and responding well to the treatments. According to reports, as Sasikala has tested positive for COVID-19, her relative Illavarashi, who has been lodged in the same prison along with Sasikala, would get tested for COVID-19 on Friday.