As many as 127 persons, most of them senior citizens, who went on a pilgrimage to Uttar Pradesh and got stranded in Varanasi, were transported by road to Tamil Nadu on Friday. They were quarantined in a defunct medical college near Tiruttani in Tiruvallur district and health workers collected samples from them for testing for COVID-19.
According to police sources, the pilgrims, belonging to nine districts, including Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchi and Salem, had gone to Uttar Pradesh on a pilgrimage, in February. When they were about to commence their journey back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Janata Curfew on March 22.
A couple of days later, the first phase of the nationwide lockdown was announced, confining them to Varanasi. Local authorities restricted the movement of the pilgrims and advised them not to move out of their halting place. After the lockdown was extended till May 3, they made an appeal to local authorities to assist them in reaching home.
There were hundreds of pilgrims from all over the country who came on a pilgrimage and were stranded in Varanasi due to COVID-19. The Uttar Pradesh government arranged 22 special buses to transport them to their respective States. A total of 127 pilgrims belonging to Tamil Nadu arrived in three buses.
“Though the pilgrims have no history of foreign travel, we have decided to quarantine them for at least 14 days, since they have travelled across many States to reach Tamil Nadu. Health workers conducted a preliminary health screening and collected samples from those having pre-existing conditions like diabetes, uncontrollable hypertension, etc.,” a senior police official said.
Tiruvallur Superintendent of Police P. Aravindan said a special team was deployed to ensure the safety of the pilgrims quarantined in the erstwhile medical college on the Chennai-Tirupati Highway. District administrations and the police have taken steps for providing food and other essentials to the pilgrims, he added.
