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Jamaat accounts for lion’s share of Delhi’s Covid-19 infections
The number of fatalities rose by two – both of these patients had also been to the Nizamuddin building – and the country’s overall number of confirmed cases rose 2,520.
The number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections in the national capital jumped on Thursday by 141 – the biggest single-day increase yet – with nearly 92% (129) of them linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, a religious group that is now feared to be driving the outbreak in the country despite an unprecedented lockdown that has forced people to stay indoors for three weeks.
The number of fatalities rose by two – both of these patients had also been to the Nizamuddin building – and the country’s overall number of confirmed cases rose 2,520, also soaring by a record number over Wednesday’s figure of 2006.
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The national surge, too, was largely driven by Tablighi Jamaat-linked infections from states such as Tamil Nadu, where all 75 new infections reported the same origin. In all, about 9,000 members linked to the gathering in Delhi have been quarantined or are being sought out to be isolated after they attended events at the Delhi building that is believed to have turned into a hotbed of the infection this month.
“The home ministry along with states and Union territories launched a massive effort and about 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat workers and their primary contacts were identified and quarantined. Among these, 1,306 people are foreigners,” said Punya Salila Srivastava, joint secretary in the Union home ministry, during a daily briefing on Thursday.
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Srivastava said that 2,346 people were evacuated from Tablighi Jamaat’s six-storey complex in Nizamuddin since March 29. Of these, 250 were foreigners and 1,804 people were shifted to different quarantine centres, while 334 positive cases were hospitalised, the official said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the number of cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat could shoot up since the government has decided to test all of the 2,346 people linked to the building.
The government has begun action at several levels against the missionary group, booking its leader Maulana Mohammad Saad under sections that punish offences that could lead to the worsening of an epidemic and for criminal conspiracy.
Union home minister Amit Shah said on Thursday the government has blacklisted 960 foreigners for their involvement in activities with the group while they were in India on tourist visas. Their visas have also been cancelled.
The home minister added that the state director generals of police and Delhi Police commissioner have been directed to take necessary legal action against the overseas Tablighi Jamaat members as they violated the provisions of Foreigners Act, 1946 and Disaster Management Act, 2005.
On Thursday, the Delhi Police mailed 24 questions to the group’s head, the first step in launching its formal investigation. The questions are related to the gathering of over 2,000 people at the six-storey building and Saad’s alleged violation of the orders that prohibited an assembly of large groups of people.
Saad’s counsel, Fuzail Ayyubi, said, “We are preparing a reply. There are about two dozen questions. The maulana is not absconding. He is in self-quarantine, as advised by doctors.”
Ayyubi also said that Saad has released an audio message urging all his followers to comply with the lockdown directions and be safe.
In a minute-long video released on social media groups, Saad asked his followers to remain indoors and also cooperate with the government.
