Telangana's COVID-19 death trail points to Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi

Alarm bells began to ring loud late on Monday night, with a cryptic tweet by Telangana Chief Minister's Office announcing the death of six people due to COVID-19.

After it emerged that all six of the COVID-19 fatalities in Telangana had attended a religious congregation at Nizamuddin in the national capital, the state has intensified its efforts to locate all those who returned from the event and trace their the contact trail.

The tweet from the Telangana CMO stated, "Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation at Markaz in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi from 13-15 March succumbed after they contracted coronavirus. Two died in Gandhi Hospital while one each died in Apollo Hospital, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and Gadwal."

It is believed that the deceased had come in contact with many people before they were tested positive and isolated. Identifying the contacts is a herculean task for the state government considering the time and distance that the deceased had travelled before they were contained.

While the authorities have identified and quarantined some of the people who had come in contact with the deceased, the possibility of many people not coming forward to own up is very strong.

The state government is seeking cooperation from all those persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat at the Markaz mosque in Nizamuddin between March 13 and March 15.

As per a statement issued by the state government on Monday, some of the attendees at the congregation have their origins in Telangana.

Earlier on Monday evening, the state medical departments media bulletin had stated that six people have tested positive for COVID-19 while one person died of the infection.

The state's first COVID-19 fatality had taken place on Saturday.