Seventy-five who attended religious congregations quarantined in Ghaziabad

The district health department officials Wednesday evening said they have identified and quarantined 75 persons who had attended different religious congregations,

The district health department officials Wednesday evening said they have identified and quarantined 75 persons who had attended different religious congregations, including the one at Delhi’s Nizamuddin in March. The officials said 70 of these persons were sent to quarantine while five were sent to isolation as they showed symptoms of Covid-19.

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More than 2,000 people were evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat’s Markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, which has now become a Covid-19 hot spot, with at least 53 who attended the congregation in Mid-March testing positive for the virus.

Different states, including Uttar Pradesh. and Union territories are making efforts to identify, trace and quarantine people who attended the congregation at Nizamuddin.

“Till 7pm Wednesday, we have picked up about 75 persons who attended different religious congregations. Some of the 75 persons may also include contacts of attendees. Five persons have symptoms such as cough and fever, and they were sent to isolation wards. The other 70 have been put in quarantine at a private college where we have set up a 100-bed quarantine facility. Our doctors are available there,” Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad, said.

He said 75 persons picked up so far are from areas such as Masuri, Dasna, Sahibabad, Loni, among others. This number is likely to rise further, officials said.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey did not respond on the issue on Wednesday.

Across the state, efforts are on to identify people who attended different religious gatherings.

“In UPm we have found 569 persons who attended the Tablighi Jamaat and other such gatherings. The arrangements for their quarantine have been made in different districts and monitoring is done by respective district magistrates and superintendents of police. About 218 foreign nationals who had come to UP on tourist visas are also placed under quarantine. They had not given information upon their arrival at the local police station as they were mandated to do,” UP’s additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi said during a press briefing in Lucknow.

“As per norms, those who have come on tourist visas cannot attend programmes like the one held by Tablighi Jamaat and also cannot take up missionary activities. Their documents are also being verified and legal action will be taken against them,” he said.

Meanwhile Amit Mohan Prasad, UP principal secretary (health), said there is no community spread of coronavirus so far in the state. He said the state saw two deaths (residents of Basti and Meerut) on Wednesday but they are trying to find out how the Basti resident was infected despite having no travel history to foreign countries.

“As a result of social distancing and lockdown, the number of cases in UP is not surging. On March 28, we had 49 cases which increased to 68 on March 29 and further to 87 on March 30. On March 31, we reached 101 cases and 113 on April 1. So the quantum of increase is low over the past three days,” he said.

The officials said he UP police, since the lockdown, has registered 6,594 FIRs in which 20,581 persons were booked and about 8.16 lakh vehicles were checked at 5,261 barriers on roads.

“The UP CM has also directed that in order to intensify the sanitisation and fogging activities, fire tenders should be roped in. We expect that the activity will start by Thursday,” Awasthi said.