Mandya: Administration sounds high alert after 84 pilgrims test Covid positive

Mandya: As many as 84 devotees who recently returned after performing a pilgrimage to Om Shakthi temple in Tamil Nadu tested positive for Covid. This has prompted the district authorities to sound high alert in the district.

Another batch of more than 800 pilgrims is arriving in the district and authorities have made arrangements to test them for Covid-19, IANS reported.

Thousands of people across the district make the annual pilgrimage to Om Shakti temple in Tamil Nadu. As many of the devotees who came back from the pilgrimage tested positive, the district authorities have gathered information and tracked about 3,600 devotees belonging to different villages of the district who returned from Tamil Nadu after the pilgrimage.

All of them were tested, of which 84 have tested positive so far. The health department and district authorities have jointly taken up exercises to manage the situation. Those who tested positive have been home quarantined and would be tested again for Covid-19 after seven days.

Meanwhile, the district administration has clamped prohibitory orders in the district and given directions to cancel all bookings for outer states and pilgrimages. Tehsildars have been directed to open quarantine and isolation centers in each of the taluks.

The authorities have requested the devotees of Om Shakti to cooperate with authorities to contain the virus spread.

(With inputs from IANS)