Coronavirus outbreak: 1,400 from Maharashtra attended Jamaat event

A total of 1,400 people from the state attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin in Delhi, the state authorities said on Thursday. Of them, the district administrations

A total of 1,400 people from the state attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Nizamuddin in Delhi, the state authorities said on Thursday. Of them, the district administrations have identified 1,300 people, including 127 from Mumbai, and quarantined most of them. Of the 127 identified from Mumbai, 105 have been traced and kept in quarantine.

HT Image

State health minister Rajesh Tope said, “According to the guidelines issued by the central government, we have successfully tracked 1,300 people who attended the Markaz congregation from different districts. Their samples will be collected for coronavirus testing.” “We gave ward-wise lists to all ward officers to track the 127 persons. The search operation for the rest is going on,” said a senior official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “Of the remaining, most of them are either out of Mumbai or Maharashtra. Many of them have given wrong residential addresses with telephone numbers, which is why we couldn’t track them,” he said.

BMC officials said considering the chaos in Delhi, many people are unwilling to reveal that they attended the event. A senior IPS officer said the tracing was done in coordination with the special branch-1, the intelligence wing of the city police, which has units in all 13 zones in city, and the zonal police. Police officials said nine people from south Mumbai’s zone one area (Mohammed Ali Road, Dongri areas) have been quarantined, 20 from zone 8 (Bandra East, Nirmal Nagar, Vakola and nearby areas) and 10, including some Indonesian nationals, from zone 9 (Bandra West, Khar areas). Police said 20 members in zone 8 area hail from Gujarat and other states and had come to Mumbai from the gathering and got stuck owing to the lockdown. Twenty-one of the identified are from Andheri and Jogeshwari (zone 10).

“Two people have been traced to Pathanwadi in Malad (east), while four from zone 12. These people were traced with the help of their phone call locations and also with assistance from the community leaders,” said an officer.

Sources said the police will share the travel details of the members with the railways to get details of their co-passengers.

Twelve people from Kalyan and five from Bhiwandi, who attended the congregation, have been put in home quarantine, said the health department of the Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC). “None of them have shown any symptoms so far,” said Jaywant Dhule, medical officer, BNCMC. Sandeep Malvi, deputy municipal commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation, said, “Twenty-five people had come to Mumbra. Some of them were from Bangladesh, a few from Malaysia while one was from West Bengal. All 25 have tested negative.” The police have registered a case against the trustee and cleric of the mosque in Mumbra for keeping the foreign nationals. Five attendees have been traced to Tulinj, Vasai, Nalla Sopara and other areas in the Palghar district.

Of the 1,300 people, a majority are from Pune.

Two persons from Pimpri-Chinchwad who attended the gathering tested positive. So far, the Pune administration has identified 182 persons, of which 106 have been sent to quarantine.