90 PC of Delhi meet attendees from TN traced

Test results of as many as 680 Tablighi men have come and nearly 190 turned out to be positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, sources said. On Wednesday, police further said that they are looking for other members of the particular religious sect of Islam, as some of them are stranded in camps in other States due to lockdown. “Most of attendees of the event came forward on their own, agreed to be quarantined and underwent test,” a senior police official said.

In the city alone, from 200 men who attended the meet, 62 were tested negative for the virus and the results of 14 are under process. Police had launched a hunt on the Tablighi members from the State who had attended the meet, after a number of them, across the State, tested positive for COVID-19. The three-day international interactive session was also slotted for Tablighi men from Tamil Nadu. Such sessions happen in their Delhi headquarters on regular basis for people from different areas across the world, sources said when asked why so many people from TN had participated in it.

Though many had come forward and took test during the last few days to make sure they are not infected by the virus, police and health officials faced problems when some of them refused to undergo tests. Police sources added that with the help of health officials, they had convinced them to undergo the test. “Now, situation has changed and most of them had come forward on their own for COVID-19 test,” an official confirmed. Jamat religious conference came into light after the government found that the sudden jump in number of patients in the State was contributed by those who attended the Delhi meeting.

Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, in his capacity as Chairman of the National Executive Committee has written a letter to the Chief Secretaries of States and Union Territories that it has been noticed some State governments and Union Territory administrations were allowing exceptions beyond what has been allowed under lockdown measures by the Union Home Ministry. “All the State Governments/ UT Administrations are requested to strictly implement the lockdown measures issued by MHA in exercise of the powers under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 in letter and spirit,” Bhalla’s communication said

The number of coronavirus cases linked to the congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin last month shot up to at least 331 on Wednesday, accounting for the sharpest single-day spike in India since the outbreak of the deadly pandemic. Tamil Nadu has registered the largest share so far at 190, followed by 70 in Andhra Pradesh, 24 in Delhi, 21 in Telangana, 13 in Assam, 10 in Adamans, two in Puducherry and one in Kashmir. Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendra Jain said 2,335 people were taken out of the Tablighi centre over a 36-hour period that ended on Wednesday. They have been sent to quarantine centres and hospitals,” he said.

With 376 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the country in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry on Wednesday said the spike does not represent a “national trend” and was primarily due to travel by those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the national capital.

“During the last 24 hours, 376 new confirmed cases and three new deaths have been reported. 132 persons have been cured /discharged from the hospitals after recovery,” the statement said.

However, addressing the daily press briefing to provide updates on the COVID-19 situation in the country, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said 386 new positive cases were reported in the last 24 hours and till now there are a total of 1,637 COVID-19 cases in the country.

“I want to highlight that the rise in the number of positive cases does not represent a national trend, but if there will be a failure anywhere, obviously cases will rise,” he said as he urged people to follow the guidelines of social distancing and lockdown and avoid congregations and religious gatherings.

All the states concerned have been notified and asked to carry out intensive drives of rigorous contact tracing and testing besides sending those with symptoms to quarantine or isolation facilities or hospitals, Agarwal said.