GUWAHATI: Priests who have been roped in by
Durga Puja pandals across the state went through the
mandatory Covid tests on Wednesday, despite opposition from a number of Puja committees.
On the occasion of Maha Panchami,
Covid tests were carried out across Assam so that the virus doesn’t spread from them to devotees and visitors during the festival, when hundreds of people are likely to throng the pandals.
According to health department sources, 16,000 tests have been carried out for priests and volunteers of about 3,570 pandals in Assam on Wednesday. Of these, 44 tested positive in 31 districts, from where the health department received reports till evening.
“This detection is significant as these could have led to a chain of positive cases during the Puja,” a senior state health department official told TOI.
Many Puja committees in Dhubri and Sonitpur districts refused to take part in the Covid tests, fearing positive cases among priests and volunteers might bring the rituals to a halt.
“It’s not easy to get so many priests who complete all the rituals during Durga Puja. If the only head priest tests positive, from where can we get a substitute at the last minute?” asked
Swapan Mazumdar, a puja organizer from Dhubri.
Senior health department officials said district magistrates may take action against the volunteers or priests who refused to undergo the mandatory Covid tests and turned up in Puja pandals.
However, most Puja committees voluntarily participated in the testing process. “Thirty-five people, including committee members and priests went through Covid tests today (Wednesday) voluntarily. Fortunately, all of them tested negative. Carrying out Covid tests was our responsibility,” said
Nalbari district’s Billeswar Devalaya doloi (head priest) Ranjit Mishra.
Lakshmanan S, Assam director of National Health Mission, said, “With efforts from people from the community, we have managed to bring down the number of Covid cases to manageable numbers, but are yet to contain the disease completely. The priests and volunteers are likely to meet hundreds of people in the next few days. Therefore, testing was made mandatory so that the positive cases could be isolated.”
Despite opposition from some Puja committees, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said the health department was committed to stopping transmission of the virus. He said a decision on Covid testing for volunteers and priests was essential.