13 Kumbh Mela returnees from Assam's Nagaon test COVID-19 positive

MARIANI: As many as 13 pilgrims from Middle Assam's Nagaon who had returned from the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the Mariani Junction in Upper Assam's Tinsukia district.

Thirteen of the people persons were headed to their home district Nagaon, but tested positive when they were screened for the virus at the Junction.

Altogether twenty-five returnees tested positive for the virus in Mariani yesterday at a time when Assam is seeing another surge in the number of cases.

All the positive returnees have been tested advised to go for home quarantine.

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"We have informed the district administration of Nagaon and they are heading to Nagaon in their own vehicles -- once there, they will undergo home quarantine," said an official.

It needs mention here that several attendees of the Kumbh Mela -- held amid the second wave of the COVID-19 in India -- have tested positive for the virus.

Nepal’s former royals, Queen Komal Rajya Lakshmi Devi and King Gyanendra, have also tested positive for the COVID-19 infection days after returning from the mela.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday had appealed to the sadhus to observe the remaining duration of the kumbh only in a “symbolic” manner.

According to reports, there is hardly any crowd now at the bathing ghats where droves of sadhus and common devotees had gathered for a dip in the river on the ‘shahi snan’ of April 14, defying Covid-19 norms like social distancing.

Most of the devotees have already left and the akhadas have been winding up their camps one after another.

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