The pilgrims were staying at the Hazur Sahib gurdwara. Maharashtra government officials said the pilgrims could not have been infected in the state as the people did not show any symptoms when they were in Nanded. “We have been screening them. However, none of them showed any symptoms. More than 1,000 of them were senior citizens; there were even cancer patients among them. It cannot happen that they were infected and none of them showed any symptoms,” an official from Nanded said on condition of anonymity.
Maharashtra’s public works department minister Ashok Chavan, who represents Nanded, issued a video message saying the district was in danger of turning into a red zone and that the Punjab government sending in 178 buses that travelled through “hotspots in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh” might have led to the infection coming into Nanded. “If the pilgrims in the gurdwara were already infected when they were here then the coronavirus would have spread all over the city in Nanded. Till now the sevadars (volunteers) who served food to the drivers and the other staff in the bus that came from Punjab have only been infected,” said Chavan. “I can say that whatever has happened is definitely due to the people who have come all the way from Punjab. They stayed in the gurdwara and that has caused the virus.”
The Punjab government’s media adviser, Raveen Thukral, did not respond to ET’s queries on the matter. A private doctor in Nanded, however, said: “It is possible that these pilgrims might have been infected in the last few days that they stayed in Nanded and if that is the case then we might start seeing infections from within Nanded also.” He said if Nanded does not get more cases from within the district then the infection might have come from Punjab.
Read More News on
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.
Read More News on
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.