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Punjab to test over 4,000 Nanded pilgrims for virus
On Saturday, people who returned from the Nanded gurudwara made up roughly 52% of Punjab’s 955 Covid-19 cases.
The Punjab government is scrambling to test and isolate 4,012 people who returned from the Hazur Sahib gurudwara in Nanded town after 504 pilgrims tested positive for Covid-19, prompting authorities in Maharashtra to seal one of Sikhism’s holiest shrines.
On Saturday, people who returned from the Nanded gurudwara made up roughly 52% of Punjab’s 955 Covid-19 cases. The spike in cases has now sparked a blame-game between the two governments even as the Sikh community appealed to not politicize the issue.
The pilgrims were stuck in Nanded since March 25, when the ongoing nationwide lockdown was clamped. On April 23, the pilgrims left the gurudwara in buses provided by the gurudwara management and private vehicles. At least 600 of them entered Punjab on April 26, and were sent to home quarantine after thermal screening.
The next day, three residents of Tarn Taran district tested positive for the virus, prompting the government to order that all pilgrims from Nanded be tested. Of the 4,012 samples, 2,800 samples have been tested and the rest are pending.
In Nanded, 20 gurudwara’s staffers have tested positive for Covid-19 and the authorities have sealed both the kitchen and the shrine. District health officer Balaji Shinde said the staffers were involved in the langar and helping the pilgrims at the shrine. “So far 20 people have tested positive. Test results of another 40 odd staffers are awaited. We have created a containment area there and started massive contact tracing as per procedure,” he added.
An official from the district collector’s office said on condition of anonymity that two bus drivers and an attendant who drove the pilgrims to Punjab have also tested positive for the virus. “We have traced close contacts of the confirmed cases and put them under isolation at health facilities,” the official said.
The string of cases triggered a political fight between the ruling Congress and the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal. Both parties, which were earlier jostling for credit for helping bring back the pilgrims, now blame each other for the rapidly spreading disease.
The Punjab government blamed its Maharashtra counterpart.
“The Maharashtra government did not clarify properly if these pilgrims were tested or not. They kept telling us since Nanded is a green zone, pilgrims are safe and tests have been performed on them,” Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said.
Nanded has seen 26 cases and two deaths, of which 20 are related to gurudwara.
A senior Punjab government functionary said on condition of anonymity that the state government did not follow the standard operating procedure in bringing back the pilgrims and relied on information provided by the gurudwara management.
Authorities in Maharashtra dismissed the allegations. “We carried regular check-ups for all the pilgrims; none showed any symptoms such as cold, fever, etc. The coronavirus test was not done on them. They could have contracted the disease on the way to Punjab,” Shinde said.
The gurudwara management echoed this stand and said none of the 4,000 pilgrims exhibited any symptoms of Covid-19 in Nanded.
“Some of the pilgrims contracted the disease on the way. They would have got off during the journey for meals or other breaks. We are all feeling bad that such a thing has happened and Nanded is now seen as a hot spot. Our only appeal is politics should be played over the incident,” said Ravinder Singh Bungai, secretary of the gurudwara board.
