A total of 84 devotees, who returned from Tamil Nadu after pilgrimage to Om Shakti temple, have tested positive for the coronavirus in Mandya district of Karnataka, authorities said on Friday, January 7. Another batch of more than 800 pilgrims are arriving in the district and authorities have made arrangements to test them for COVID-19.
Thousands of people across the district make the annual pilgrimage to the 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 exercise to manage the situation. Those tested positive have been home quarantined and would be tested again for COVID-19 after seven days.
Meanwhile, the administration has clamped prohibitory orders in the district and given directions to cancel all bookings for travelling out of the state on pilgrimages. Tehsildars have been directed to open a quarantine and isolation center in each of the taluks.
The authorities have requested the devotees of Om Shakti to cooperate with authorities to contain the spread of the virus. Karnataka stands third in the country in terms of total positive cases with 30.13 lakh as the state recorded a total of 4,246 cases on Thursday. The positivity rate spiked to 3.3%. On Thursday, January 6 the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada (111) and Udupi (88) saw a major surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. Yadgir, Raichur, Haveri districts reported no cases on Thursday. Two deaths have been reported in the latest 24-hour period in the state.
Bengaluru still accounted for the most number of cases across the state. Bengaluru reported 3,605 coronavirus positive cases on Wednesday, taking the number of active cases in the city to 14,762, officials said. Maharashtra has the highest number of positive cases with 67.31 lakh followed by Kerala with 52.59 lakh. Karnataka also stands in third position in terms of total recovered cases (29.61 lakh) and total deaths (38,355).