Continuing its journey towards negativity on the second consecutive day, Punjab on Friday reported 129 positive cases of which 121 are those who have returned from other states, including majority of Nanded Sahib pilgrims. With this, the state’s tally has crossed 600.
Out of the total 609 positive cases across the State till now, more than 40 percent, approximately 250, amounts to the returnees from Gurudwara Hazur Sahib at Nanded in Maharashtra, students from Kota in Rajasthan, and from other states.
Even as the government is unable to provide the exact number of the “positive” returnees in the state so far, it has been estimated the figure has crossed 250-mark, with majority being the pilgrims from Nanded who were stranded there. In the past 48 hours, about 193 Nanded pilgrims have tested positive.
The corona explosion took place in the state at the time when Punjab has just started his journey on the road to recovery. Reports of more corona positive patients recovering from the deadly virus, in comparison to the number of positive cases were received.
But, it seems, the race for political supremacy has cost Punjab dear. Without any strategy, and fool proof planning to bring back as many as 3600 stranded pilgrims back to the State, the Congress led Punjab Government sent the fleet of buses to Maharashtra. The “hasty” decision came close on the heels when the Union Minister and SAD MP Harsimrat Badal declared that SAD would bring the “stranded pilgrims” back to Punjab.
The government sources informed The Pioneer that all the pilgrims were “screened”, that is checked for body temperature, symptoms of cough and cold, before the journey, and all were “asymptomatic”.
A government official, requesting anonymity, said that the authorities did not, at any point of time, expected that things would go “out of hand to this extent”.
“But, extra care should have been taken as we were bringing people from Maharashtra, which is the most-affected state in the country,” admitted the official.
Even the state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu has also blamed the Maharashtra Government for the COVID explosion in Punjab.
“They were under Maharashtra Government’s observation. It was their duty to implement the Centre’s guidelines. Their samplings and tests should've been done there,” said Sidhu, adding that if Punjab had been told that the tests hadn't been done, “we would've sent two teams from the state there”.
Sidhu added, “Our teams would have tested them and segregated them there only as symptomatic and asymptomatic. We would have brought them here in separate buses. We would have kept the people who tested positive in isolation and the others in quarantine.”
The Minister, however, said that the Government was now testing all of them, who are coming back to state, including the Nanded pilgrims.
As per available figures, as many 9,042 returnees reported in all the 22 districts of the state, including 2,694 from Nanded, 84 from Kota, 5603 migrant labour, besides 661 others.
Of these, only 37 percent have been sampled and tested, out of which reports for 78 percent are awaited — which means, the figure is expected to escalate further manifold.
Among the districts, Amritsar reported the maximum cases 48 cases, taking the district’s tally to 90 — third in the state, followed by Jalandhar at 105, and Mohali at 92. At least, 74 of these were people who recently returned from Nanded.
With 16 more positive cases, Jalandhar became the first district to cross the three-figure mark. One recently returned from Nanded, one came back from Rajasthan, seven were contacts of already diagnosed cases and seven were new cases, stated the daily health bulletin.
In a major spike, once again, Patiala also reported 25 new corona positive cases on Friday. All the new positive patients are the pilgrims who returned from Hazur Sahib. With this, the total number of positive cases has reached 89 — fourth in the state.
Mohali district also reported six new cases, including five Nanded pilgrims, while one was a contact of an already diagnosed case.
“The district today saw the emergence of six corona positive cases which has taken the number of cases to 92. Out of these, five are pilgrims who returned from Nanded while the other one is from Jawaharpur village and is the son of Malkit Singh who is undergoing quarantine period after being tested negative,” said Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan.
Out of the 92 cases, total 20 are Nanded pilgrims, including one from Ambala, who had arrived in the district on April 28.
Ferozepur district also reported 15 new cases, all Nanded pilgrims. The district had no positive case till the driver of deceased Ludhiana ACP Anil Kohli had come here a few days ago and tested positive. He was already recovered and discharged after his report came negative. Now, Ferozepur has 13 cases.
Fazilka — a district that had until Friday been the only one to have no confirmed coronavirus cases — had four Nanded pilgrims tested positive. Moga and Fatehgarh Sahib each reported one positive case, both Nanded pilgrims.
“WE WILL CONTROL THIS WITHIN FEW DAYS”: HEALTH MINISTER
Squarely blaming Maharashtra Government for the COVID outbreak due to Nanded pilgrims in Punjab, the state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Friday expressed confidence that the State would be able to control this “within few days”.
“We're testing all pilgrims. We’ll be able to control this within few days. We haven’t allowed anyone to go home. Those who came to Tarn Taran directly had come after crossing five-six states. They weren't stopped on any border. They entered Punjab. Our government traced them,” he said.