gulfnews | At least 15,000 people who may have
caught the coronavirus from a 'super-spreader' guru are under strict
quarantine in northern India after the Sikh religious leader died of
COVID-19.
The 70-year-old guru, Baldev Singh, had returned from a trip to
Europe's virus epicentre Italy and Germany when he went preaching in
more than a dozen villages in Punjab state.
It has sparked one of India's most serious alerts related to the
pandemic and special food deliveries are being made to each household
under even tighter restrictions than the 21-day nationwide stay-at-home
order imposed by the government.
"The first of these 15 villages was sealed on March 18, and we think
there are 15,000 to 20,000 people in the sealed villages," said Gaurav
Jain, a senior magistrate for the district of Banga, where Singh lived.
"There are medical teams on standby and regular monitoring," he told AFP on Friday.
Nineteen people who were in contact with the preacher have already
tested positive for the new virus, said Vinay Bublani, a local deputy
police commissioner.
Results are being awaited from more than 200 others.
The guru and his two associates - who have also tested positive -
ignored self-isolation orders on their return from Europe, and were on
their preaching tour until Singh fell ill and died.
