Search in West Bengal for participants in Delhi’s Nizamuddin gathering from where many tested positive & died from COVID-19

A search is on in West Bengal for those who had participated in the religious gathering, Tablighi Jamaat, in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin West earlier in March.

Twenty-four people who participated in it have tested positive for Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Tuesday, adding that 1,033 persons had been shifted to various places. Seven hundred people who attended it have been quarantined and over 330 had been admitted to hospitals.

All those who had attended this event are being identified by the Centre and state governments jointly. An FIR has been ordered against a maulana who was leading the event.

The event was attended by over 2,000 people including many from Indonesia and Malaysia, where many of the delegates stayed in the mosque area. The area has been sealed on Tuesday morning.

Sources said that some people from West Bengal who had attended the event have already been identified. West Bengal home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay took to Twitter to write: “All those from WB who have participated in this event (Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi) are being identified and will be immediately tested for COVID and put under mandatory 14 days quarantine.”

A list has been made by the Centre and sent to various states with known addresses, and the state governments have been asked to immediately quarantine them.

According to various reports, at least seven persons who participated in the gathering, including the Tablighi Jamaat’s Kashmir chief, have died. The Telengana government has identified six such deaths.