West Bengal govt identifying Nizamuddin event attendees, says official

The West Bengal government has started identifying those who had attended a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin earlier this month, a senior official said on Tuesday. 

Once identified, they will be placed under quarantine and medical tests would be conducted to ascertain if they have contracted the disease, he said.

Taking to Twitter, West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said, "All those from West Bengal who have participated in this event (Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi) are being identified and will be immediately tested for COVID and put under mandatory 14 days quarantine."

Sources in the government said that over 30 people had participated in the congregation.

Of them, 16 have been identified so far and efforts are on to establish contact with them, they said.

Over 2,000 delegates, including those from Indonesia and Malaysia, had attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin West from March 1 to 15.

In Delhi, at least 24 people who participated in the event have tested positive for COVID-19. 

Meanwhile, the health department officials in Srikalahasti in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday identified 15 persons who had attended a Tablighi Jamaat gathering at Markaz Nizamuddin in Delhi and shifted them to Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia Government General Hospital in Tirupati on the fear that they might have been infected with the coronavirus.

This came after several people who had participated in the religious gathering in Delhi tested positive for the coronavirus.

Six persons from the neighbouring Telangana who attended a religious prayer meeting at the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters, or the Markaz, from March 13-15 in Delhi`s Nizamuddin, have died of coronavirus, Telangana Chief Minister`s office (CMO) said on Monday.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country stand at 1,251. 

(With inputs from ANI)