As Covid-19 gets out of control, Delhi makes registration mandatory for residents visiting Kumbh

According to the order, the residents of Delhi, who attended the Mahakumbh in Haridwar from April 4 to April 17, to go into mandatory home quarantine for 14 days and upload their details in Delhi government's website www.delhi.gov.in. within 24 hours of their arrival.

The order also directed those planning to attend the Kumbh Mela from April 18 to April 30 to compulsorily register their basic details in the government website so that they can be tracked on arrival.

However, the order has been termed "too little too late" by the experts as Delhi witnessed a massive spike in fresh coronavirus cases to 24,375, which is the highest so far, taking the total number of active cases to 69,799.

A Hindustan Times report citing senior government officials, who did not wish to be named, said that the Delhi government has no data about the residents who visited the Kumbh Mela where 70 seers had tested positive for the disease while two top seers including a Mahamandleshwar died of the infection recently.

The grand pilgrimage is being feared as a major Covid-19 hotspot as more than 2,000 people in the fair have tested positive for the infection in about a week's time. Thousands were seen taking part in the "Shahi Snan" or royal baths on April 12 and 14 flouting all Covid appropriate behaviour.

A Delhi government official on the conditions of anonymity told HT that “such a portal (to register the details of Kumbh Mela pilgrims from Delhi) should have been created earlier, preferably before the Kumbh Mela started on March 11 or from April 1, when the cases started rising in Delhi”

“If it is found/reported that any such resident of Delhi, who has returned to Delhi after visiting Kumbh, has not uploaded the requisite details/information, he/she will be sent to the institutional government quarantine centers, as the case may be. The District magistrate of Delhi will ensure tracing and surveillance on a daily basis of such residents of Delhi. They should also ensure quarantining of such residents of Delhi, either at home or government quarantine centers. All district magistrates of Delhi and their counterpart DCPs and all authorities concerned should ensure strict compliance of this order,” the DDMA order added.

Violation of the order will invite legal action under sections 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other legal provisions as applicable, the order stated.

Odisha and Madhya Pradesh have also asked Kumbh returnees to self-isolate and quarantine themselves for 14 days.  Maharashtra, which is the worst-hit by the infection, is also mulling such an order for the Kumbh Mela returnees.