ELEVEN PEOPLE from Banjara community’s sacred Pohradevi shrine in Washim district, including religious leaders, who had participated in a function on Tuesday where Forest Minister Sanjay Rathod had appeared with thousands of his followers in violation of all Covid-19 norms, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.

Washim Civil Surgeon Madhukar Rathod said, “11 persons from the shrine have tested Covid-19 positive. We are doing contact tracing of people from several villages that had thronged the place on Tuesday.”

After Rathod had arrived at the shrine, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had taken “serious cognizance” of the issue and ordered an inquiry.

Rathod’s appearance at the shrine was seen as a show of strength after several political leaders raised his alleged links to the Pooja Chavan death case.

Meanwhile, at least 227 schoolchildren from an Ashram school in Washim have tested positive for Covid-19.

Rathod, the civil surgeon, said, “227 children aged 14-16 years and four non-teaching staffers have been found Covid-19 positive. They are all asymptomatic. But we have stationed a team of health workers at the school to take care of any exigency.”

On Wednesday, 144 people who had attended a social programme at Zadgaon village in Buldhana district last week had tested positive during a health checkup camp. The whole village has been declared a containment zone.

On Thursday, Vidarbha saw 3,293 new Covid cases with Nagpur at 1,116 and Amravati at 906 leading the chart of the region’s 11 districts. The number of deaths in the region was 28, including 13 in Nagpur and six in Amravati.