BMO Kandi and Tehsildar Koteranka were also directed to remain in contact with the attendant of the deceased.
SRINAGAR (J&K) —
Thakur Puran Singh, a senior BJP leader and former member of the erstwhile Legislative Assembly of J&K State, died in Rajouri on Thursday, just days after returning from the Kumbh Mela in Uttarakhand.
Following Puran Singh’s death, which was “suspected to be attributed to COVID-19,” the Rajouri administration directed that he be cremated according to the Health Department’s procedure for SARS-CoV-2 virus victims.
Thakur Puran Singh, a resident of Kewal Koteranka, had recently returned from the Kumbh Mela 2021, according to Manzoor Ahmed Naik, BJP Youth Wing J&K’s spokesperson. He said that the deceased had not been keeping well after returning from the religious congregation at Haridwar. “He was being treated at a hospital and was now being taken to a hospital in Punjab but died on the way,” he added.
After his death, an order was issued by Additional District Magistrate Rajouri, which read, “For smooth conduct of cremation of suspected COVID-19 positive case, resident of Kewal, Koteranka as per SOPs, who was under treatment and expired today on 22.4.2021, it is hereby ordered that body shall directly be taken to the Cremation Ground, Kewal Tehsil Koteranka, District Rajouri.”
“Block Medical Officer Kandi shall deploy ambulance, if required, as per SOP and also make all necessary arrangements along with deployment of staff with PPE Kits and other precautionary measures as per COVID-19 protocol,” it added. BMO Kandi and Tehsildar Koteranka were also directed to remain in contact with the attendant of the deceased.
Pertinently, Uttarakhand has seen an over seven-fold rise in cases since the Kumbh Mela 2021 began. On March 31, the State had registered 293 cases, which went up to 2,160 as on April 19.
There are also reports that the double mutant strain of SARS-CoV-2, believed to have greater transmissibility, was circulating in Uttarakhand before the Maha Kumbh Mela 2021 began in Haridwar on April 1.
On Monday, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) returned samples from the State, detecting a total of six cases of various strains, according to doctors in Dehradun’s Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL).
The government, however, has maintained that the double mutant strain is not a “variant of concern” (VOC), and that it is still a variant of interest that is under investigation.