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Nanded-linked cases push up Punjab Covid-19 tally
About two-thirds of the total cases in Punjab can be attributed to the Nanded gurdwara cluster, according to the numbers released by the state officials.
Punjab reported a big spike of 104 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Monday, most of them pilgrims who recently returned from a Nanded gurdwara that has led to a cluster of infections, as the case count in the state rose to 1,232, according to officials.
A total of 795 of about 4,100 pilgrims who returned from Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra’s Nanded have so far tested positive for the disease, a health official said on Monday, adding that the test reports of about 1,800 of the pilgrims were still awaited.
About two-thirds of the total cases in Punjab can be attributed to the Nanded gurdwara cluster, according to the numbers released by the state officials.
An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said as the pilgrims began returning to Punjab, 700 of them were sent to their hometowns to be quarantined at their houses after thermal scanning.
In Ludhiana, the district administration sealed five villages near Samrala and Machhiwara as a preventive measure. The state government started tracing and testing the pilgrims from Nanded only after three of them tested positive in Tarn Taran district on April 27.
“Our entire focus has been to test the pilgrims. The process may take another couple of days,” a senior official said, asking not to be named.
State transport minister Razia Sultana on Monday dismissed a statement attributed to Maharashtra minister Ashok Chavan that appeared to suggest that the pilgrims could have caught the disease from the Punjab bus driver who ferried them back.
Of the total cases in the state, 23 have died, while 128 have been cured of the infection, the state’s bulletin said on Monday, adding that three patients were in a critical condition and were on ventilator support.
A total of 28,545 samples have been taken so far in the state and of which, 21,295 have returned negative and 6,018 reports are still awaited. There are 1,081 active cases in the state, as per bulletin.
