Over 173 of Sikh pilgrims returning from Maharashtra have tested positive for COVID-19. The pilgrims were stranded at the gurdwara Hazur Sahib in Maharashtra’s Nanded amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. They started returning to Punjab from April 22 but the order to quarantine them came five days later.
Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, targeted by the opposition Akali Dal for negligence in not ensuring proper quarantining of the pilgrims, has blamed the Maharashtra government where his party Congress is part of the ruling Shiv Sena-led coalition.
“Maharashtra did not help the pilgrims and left them on their own. They didn’t get them tested,” Mr Sidhu said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Indian Railways has deployed a “special train” to transport migrants who have been stranded by the lockdown. The train with 24 coaches is carrying 1,200 migrants from Lingampally in Telangana to Hatia in Jharkhand started at 4:50 am today. The “special train” left Telangana for Jharkhand at around 4.30 am, carrying 1,200 people from Lingampally in the southern state to Jharkhand’s Hatia district. The 24-coach train, which usually seats 72 people in a compartment, contained only 54 people in each in accordance with social distancing guidelines. All passengers were also screened for symptoms before being allowed to board.
This comes a day after the centre permitted migrant labourers, students and other people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus infection to return home, nearly five weeks after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to break the chain of transmission of the virus. Several states, including Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and some southern states have asked for trains to return the migrants, citing distance and the logistics of bus travel.
India witnessed its biggest jump in coronavirus-linked cases today, with 1,993 people testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, government data showed. At least 35,043 people have tested positive for coronavirus and 1,147 have died due to the virus.
India’s coronavirus recovery rate – the share of people who have been discharged from hospital after treatment – has risen to 25.13 per cent, a significant improvement over 13 per cent reported 14 days ago, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. The doubling rate of COVID-19 cases has also improved to 11 days from 3.4 days before the nationwide lockdown, they said.
The growth rate of coronavirus cases is down to nearly zero in the northeastern states and under 3 per cent per day in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala and Haryana where cases are taking well over 20 days to double, data from the Union Health Ministry shows.
Some states where the rate of new COVID-19 cases is relatively high but is showing a downward trend are Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh at 18 days and Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab and Gujarat at 14 days.
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