No religious meets, track Markaz attendees: Capt
CHANDIGARH: With infections linked to a March event of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi leading to a countrywide surge in Covid-19 cases, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday completely prohibited all gatherings, including religious, in the state.
The chief minister said the state government will impose a total ban on all congregations, irrespective of the religion involved. “I will personally talk to the acting jathedar of the Akal Takht,” he said, directing the state chief secretary to discuss the matter with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in view of the upcoming Baisakhi festival.
Amarinder also ordered 21 days of quarantine for all those who had returned to the state from Nizamuddin in New Delhi since January this year, and asked the police and administrative officials to move aggressively to track, trace and isolate all such people.
He directed the police and health department to constitute special teams to track and follow up on those who had returned to Punjab from Nizamuddin.
The chief minister issued these instructions while reviewing the current situation through a video conference with DCs and other senior officials of the civil administration and police department. The state authorities were initially slow in tracking and tracing the Nizamuddin returnees and swung into action after reports of a surge driven by infections among the Jamaat’s members came from different parts of the country.
DGP: 200 FROM PUNJAB VISITED NIZAMUDDIN
According to DGP Dinkar Gupta, some 200 persons from Punjab had visited Nizamuddin and returned here, at different times, with 12 districts believed to be affected. They were being tracked, along with some from others states who had arrived in
Punjab for Tablighi Jamaat work. The health department was debriefing and contact tracing them, though, so far, no corona confirmed cases had come to light.
Health secretary Anurag Agarwal informed the chief minister that the department had so far received a list of 125 of these persons, of whom 73 had been tracked and samples collected in 25 cases, some of whom had come to Mansa as late as March 19. As a precautionary measure, all of them had been placed in quarantine, he added.
The Kapurthala deputy commissioner informed the CM that 31 people who returned from Nizamuddin had been quarantined though they had been found to be asymptomatic so far.
In Patiala, too, 29 of them had been quarantined but there were no symptoms shown by them.
On a suggestion from director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, the chief minister ordered quarantine of the Pakistani nationals who were in Amritsar, saying the state could not afford to take any chances at this critical juncture.
The Amritsar DC said Pakistan had given permission to allow entry of four of its citizens who had come from Delhi, of whom three had tested positive. The BSF and immigration staff who handled them had been quarantined, he said, but added that there were a few more Pakistanis still stuck in Amritsar.
Amarinder also warned the officials against any complacency in terms of curfew enforcement and law and order, as well as relief measures and management of essential supplies.