New Delhi: The city’s Nizamuddin has been labelled a hotspot for the spread of COVID-19 with a large number of attendees at a religious congregation being testing positive.
This gathering had taken place last month and most of the attendees have now returned to their states. The Centre is now compiling and handing out statewise lists of participants. State authorities, meanwhile, are tracing and identifying attendees to test and isolate them.
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Here’s a look at the expected number of attendees from various states and Union Territories and how many have been tested positive for COVID-19 so far.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Out of 15 people from Andaman and Nicobar Islands who had participated in Tablighi Jamaat’s event in Delhi’s Nizamuddin between March 19 and 23, 10 people have tested positive for COVID-19.
After the lockdown was announced, seven of them boarded a Vistara flight and two IndiGo flights from Delhi to Port Blair on March 24. After reaching Port Blair, these nine people developed COVID-19 symptoms and were sent to quarantine. The wives of one of them also tested positive.
Assam
Assam’s health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has disclosed that the Centre had given them a list of 457 people from Assam who had been to the Nizamuddin area in Delhi along with 91 others reported who had come in contact with the attendees.
The state government’s investigation however, revealed that 134 of the 457 were only present in the Nizamuddin area as per their mobile phone locations but had not attended the congregation. Sixty eight others have not returned to Assam.
Workers prepare an isolation ward at the Civil Hospital in wake of coronavirus pandemic, during the nationwide lockdown, in Nagaon District of Assam, Tuesday, March 30. Photo: PTI
The Assam government could locate only 230 out of these 346 people. Out of these 230, 12 have been tested positive of COVID-19.
Manipur
Out of 10 people from Manipur who attended the religious congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin, one has tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of positive cases in Manipur now stands at 2.
Arunachal Pradesh
The first COVID-19 case was registered in Arunachal Pradesh after a man, who had attended the Markaz gathering in Delhi tested positive.
The state authorities have also sent samples of seven other participants for testing.
Bihar
As many as 86 people from Bihar are expected to have attended the congregation. The state was able to locate 48 of them and they all are being sent to quarantine.
Haryana
As per Haryana’s heath minister Anil Vij, 125 people from the state attended the event and most of them have been sent to quarantine.
Himachal Pradesh
Fifteen people, from Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district and Kullu’s Bhuntar, are believed to have attended the Markaz in Delhi and they all have been quarantined by Delhi’s Disease Surveillance Officer.
Telangana
Thirty new COVID-19 cases, each with a travel history of having attended the Markaz at Delhi’s Nizamuddin, were reported in Telangana on Thursday. Nine persons have died so far in the state. All the deceased had attended it.
Karnataka
Deputy Commissioner of Bidar H.R. Mahadev has confirmed that 11 people from Bidar who had recently visited Nizamuddin have tested positive for COVID-19. They all have been kept under home quarantine for now and will be shifted to isolation wards.
Kerala
Around 300 people are expected to have participated in the religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin in two phases. Sixty out of the 300 were kept under observation.
The authorities suspect that about 150 people who attended the gathering in the first phase have dispersed in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand. 100 people who are listed to have attended the Nizamuddin gathering in the second phase are still being traced.
An isolation ward in Kerala. Photo: PTI
“Their religious organisation heads and individuals in Kerala are cooperating with us. We have the required wherewithal to deal with these cases. Since the lockdown has been strongly enforced in the state, these people have largely been at their homes only,” a senior officer told NDTV.
Maharashtra
About 34 people from Ahmednagar in Maharashtra are said to have attended the gathering in Delhi, out of which two people have tested positive for COVID-19.
Meghalaya
Shillong Markaz has informed the state police that seven persons from Meghalaya had attended the gathering before the lockdown was imposed. Five of them are in Delhi and two in Lucknow.
The state police say they are in touch with all of them and have shared their details with the Delhi and UP police.
Odisha
The Odisha government has not put out the number of persons who attended the Markaz but so far have identified four persons and kept them under isolation.
“We will send his blood sample for COVID-19 test. If there is any positive signal, those who came in contact with him will be traced,” said Kendrapara District Collector Samarth Verma. He also added that the police is looking out for others who might have attended the function.
Jharkhand
The Jharkhand police has received a list of 36 persons who have attended the Markaz in Delhi. The search for these 36 persons is still on and the police have been given a deadline of seven days to find them and put them under isolation.
Tamil Nadu
On Wednesday, 110 people in Tamil Nadu who had returned after attending the religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin have tested positive for COVID-19. The total cases in the state now stands at 234.
It is believed that about 501 persons from Tamil Nadu were attendees at the Delhi meet.
Uttarakhand
Twenty six people from Uttarakhand who attended the congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin are reported to be stuck in Delhi.
Director General of Police, Law and Order, Ashok Kumar said, “Their mobile locations confirm that they are still in the national capital.”
Uttar Pradesh
The Uttar Pradesh government claimed that it has identified 569 people who had attended the religious gathering.
However, it could not link these people to the Tablighi Jamaat gathering. Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi, has said, “Besides these 569 people, 218 foreign nationals who had come to Uttar Pradesh at different stages on a tourist visa too have been identified but they cannot be said to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat.”
“Various district magistrates and police chiefs of the districts have been directed to ensure proper quarantine of these persons along with adherence of the proper medical protocol,” he added.
West Bengal
As many as 71 people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin have been identified by the West Bengal government. Home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said that 54 of these 71, have been sent to quarantine.
Gujarat
The Gujarat government has identified a total of 72 people who had attended the religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. These include 34 from Ahmedabad, 12 from Mehsana, 20 from Bhavnagar, four from Botad and two from Navsari.
However, the police is yet to ascertain whether these people were present at the Markaz from March 14 to March 23.
Andhra Pradesh
There have been a total of 87 positive COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh so far. The health authorities in the state say that 64 out of these 87 cases have been those persons who had attended Markaz at Delhi’s Nizamuddin.
Six of the remaining are those persons who had come in contact with the attendees.
Rajasthan
Twelve people from Rajasthan who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi have been tested positive for COVID-19, including four from Tonk district, seven from Churu district and one from Jhunjhunu district.
Migrant workers who have returned from Maharashtra and Gujarat being screened for COVID-19 at the Ratanpur border in Dungarpur, Rajasthan. Photo: The Wire
Over 450 Tablighi Jamaat participants have been quarantined in Rajasthan.
Madhya Pradesh
Twenty four persons in Madhya Pradesh who have returned from the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi, have been kept in isolation.
Punjab
Nine people from Punjab’s Ludhiana, Pathankot, Sangrur and Barnala districts, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi have not returned.
Authorities say they have been quarantined by the Delhi government. “Four persons from Ludhiana attended the gathering and they have not returned yet. They have been quarantined by the Delhi government there, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Aggarwal told PTI.
The police said that they have kept their families in Punjab under home-quarantine. “But as a precautionary measure, we have put his family under home quarantine,” said Sangrur Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori.