Some of the residents of Assam, who were present “in and around” the Tablighi Jamat gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi and returned to the state, have been tested for the coronavirus and their results will be available on Wednesday, officials have said.
The Assam government has said 455 people were present at Delhi’s Nizamuddin, which has become a coronavirus hotspot after a religious congregation was held there earlier this month.
“On Wednesday evening, we are likely to receive the test results of those persons who had returned from Nizamuddin. We will be able to know the status of Covid-19 spread in Assam only after the results arrive,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state’s health minister, had said on Tuesday.
Sarma had said he has instructed district authorities to find and quarantine them.
“Held an urgent Video Conference with all DCs & SPs advised them to take swift & strict measures for all those who returned from hotstpot at #NizamuddinMarkaz of #TablighiJamaat. All of them shall be quarantined by evening,” Sarma tweeted late on Tuesday.
The minster had also urged people who have returned to the state to voluntarily go to the nearest hospital or make a call on the state’s coronavirus helpline number.
“Urgent Request. If there is anyone from Assam who attended the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi, please IMMEDIATELY report voluntarily to the nearest government hospital or by calling Helpline no # 104. Please treat this as very important,” he had tweeted.
Assam had on Tuesday also reported its first Covid-19 patient after a 52-year-old man tested positive and Sarma said he is now at Silchar Medical College Hospital in Cachar district of Barak Valley.
The man, Sarma told a local news channel, had first shown symptoms of Covid-18 on March 18. There are unconfirmed reports that he had gone for treatment of another disease to Delhi and had returned to Assam on March 11.
“The patient was under our notice since Monday and we sent his samples to NIV, Pune to confirm. We have taken his travel history and done contact-tracing. The persons who were in contact with him have already been either quarantined or kept in isolation. So there is no need to panic,” he said.
Sarma said that the details of the patient, his travel history and list of persons he may have come in contact will be made available officially on Wednesday.
Officials of the Delhi government have said they have identified 1,830 people from 19 states and Union territories who visited the congregation in Nizamuddin, which was held between March 15 and 17.
However, state governments said they suspected many more people, who were not registered with the sect, had visited the event.
They are trying to identify at least 3200 people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. Hundreds of people have been put under quarantine and tested them for the dreaded infection in at least 11 states and Union territories.
Officials have confirmed these congregation members had tested positive in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, and Jammu & Kashmir and that many test results were awaited.
Six in Telangana and one in Kashmir, who attended the event, have died of Covid-19.
