Over 2,000 Punjab pilgrims stuck in Nanded return

CHANDIGARH/BATHINDA: Punjab struggled to ensure pilgrims, who returned to the state on Wednesday after being stranded for over a month in Hazur Sahib Gurdwara and Langar Sahib Gurdwara in Nanded, Maharashtra, were immediately quarantined and then tested for novel coronavirus as 29 of 33 cases which tested positive in the state on Wednesday were Nanded pilgrims.
Punjab recorded 33 new cases and a death on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 377 cases and 20 deaths.

As many as 3,498 pilgrims from 20 districts of Punjab were stranded since the imposition of the lockdown in Nanded and of these, 2,293 pilgrims returned on Wednesday through Bathinda district in 64 Punbus and PRTC buses sent by the Punjab government.
Punjab had sent total 80 buses to Nanded, one developed some snag and 15 buses were yet to return till the filing of the report. However, many pilgrims have already reached homes since Monday either after travelling on private buses or other vehicles.
Of 29 Nanded pilgrims, who tested positive on Wednesday, 11 are from Ludhiana, 5 from Mohali, three each Hoshiarpur and Faridkot, two each from Bathinda, Hoshiarpur and Patiala and one in Sangrur.
The maximum number of pilgrims stranded in Nanded were from Amritsar (621), followed by Tarn Taran (514) and Gurdaspur (498). Besides the pilgrims from Punjab, 135 pilgrims from Ambala in Haryana, 48 from Delhi and 27 from Rajasthan were also stranded in Nanded.
Punjab orders testing of those back from Maha, Raj
Worried that most of the Nanded pilgrims who have tested positive were asymptomatic, the Punjab government has directed all district authorities to take samples of everyone coming from Maharashtra, Rajasthan or anywhere else, and send them to 21-day mandatory quarantine.
The pilgrims on reaching Punjab are being taken by buses to their respective districts’ quarantine facility. However, symptomatic pilgrims are being are taken to isolation facility. All the pilgrims are being tested. All those whose tests come negative will be sent home for strict quarantine of 21 days. And the ones who test positive will continue to be in the isolation facility.

After entering the state in phases via Doomwali border in Bathinda district, close to Dabwali town of Haryana, the Punjab buses were made to park at a field where wheat was harvested. The pilgrims were provided refreshments without allowing them to alight from the buses. Thereafter, they were shifted to buses meant for their native districts.