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Covid-19: Odisha declares containment zones, screen people over Jamaat event
The Union health ministry announced on Monday that 30% of the Covid-19 cases in India could be traced to a gathering held by the Tablighi Jamaat.
Authorities in Odisha have ramped up Covid-19 screenings and declared several areas as containment zones after nearly 70 people came back to the state from the Tablighi Jamaat’s events in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, which has emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus disease.
The Union health ministry announced on Monday that 30% of the Covid-19 cases in India could be traced to a gathering held by the Tablighi Jamaat, a religious group of a fast-growing proselytising Islamic movement that was started in 1926 by Islamic scholar Maulana Muhammad Ilyas.
Of the 4067 Covid-19 cases in the country, 1445 were linked to the congregation in March in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz.
Officials in Odisha have said 68 people, including African nationals, had gone to the Tablighi Jamaat’s Delhi headquarters from the state and 28 came back. Out of the 28 three, including a postman who had attended the religious congregation and returned home, have tested positive for the virus.
This prompted chief minister Naveen Patnaik to urge all those who had attended the meet in New Delhi, to come forward and self-register with the government helpline on Covid-19.
“Corona is currently the biggest threat to the human race and to beat it we all need to come together to beat it,” Patnaik said.
“Only through awareness, we can break the chain of coronavirus. While there is no need to panic but we do need to be careful. Your cooperation will for the betterment of your own family and the human race,” he said.
Three Muslim brothers living in an apartment in the Bomikhal area of Bhubaneswar tested positive last Friday, as the state’s total cases surged from five to 20 on a single day.
Soon after, Bhubaneswar municipal authorities sealed off the entry and exit points of the area and started active surveillance of people who had come in close contact with the brothers.
On Sunday, 15 other Muslims who lived in the same area tested positive for Covid-19, even as Odisha saw the highest single-day surge in positive cases, taking the total to 39.
It is not yet clear whether the three brothers or any of their family members attended the congregation, but officials admitted that the current focus of the government was to scrutinise Muslim majority areas and make them undergo Covid-19 screening tests.
In the last four days, the Odisha government has announced 10 Covid-19 cluster containment zones around the state including four in Bhubaneswar. Most of these containment zones have sizeable Muslim populations.
“Though we are still not sure how many attended the congregation, the aim is to take the swab samples of as many people in these zones and test them,” said a senior official of the state government’s health surveillance team.
The areas include Bhadrak town, Bhubaneswar’s Jadupur locality and also Brahmabarada, a village in Jajpur district where the Tablighi chief Maulana Saad had addressed a meeting between February 29 and March 3 this year.
In all these containment areas, screening procedures are being followed vigorously but the state health department has refused to share the number of swab samples they have taken in these zones so far.
Health department officials also said they are facing problems in collecting samples from such areas as personnel were scared of getting infected by the coronavirus.
“Everyone is in panic mode. One can’t force health workers to visit the area if they are unwilling,” an official said.
Mohammed Moquim, Congress MLA from Barabati-Cuttack, said he has been urging community leaders to get tested.
“The virus is the enemy of humanity and anyone who has attended the Jamaat in Delhi should come forward to get tested,” he said.
Even though the chief minister and Subroto Bagchi, Odisha government’s chief spokesperson on Covid-19, have urged people not to ostracise those who have tested positive or give the pandemic a religious colour, some Muslim leaders admitted that of late they are being viewed with suspicion.
“We are urging all our community members to come out and report whether they attended the Jamaat. But unfortunately, the entire community is being vilified thanks to one-sided debates in a few news channels,” Mohd Shahnawaz, president of Jama Masjid Bhubaneswar, said.
“In Odisha too, we can sense some sort of unease when people see our community members,” he added.
