Over 1,500 shifted out of Delhi mosque as states stare at rise in COVID-19 cases

Authorities across the nation scrambled to trace the people who attended the religious gathering at Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin, linked to at least 11 COVID-19 deaths across the country, after nearly 100 people who either stayed there or those came in contact with them tested positive on Tuesday.

Tamil Nadu had 50 fresh cases while Delhi reported 24, Telangana 15 and Andhra Pradesh 18 cases related to Tablighi Jamaat.

In Delhi, as many as 441 out of 1,548 people shifted out of the Tablighi Jamaat facility have shown symptoms of infection, revealing the extent of the problem. Those who tested positive and are showing symptoms have been shifted to various hospitals and the rest 1,107 to quarantine facilities.

According to officials, people from 19 Indian states and at least 16 countries visited the Alami Markaz Banglewali Masjid at Tablighi Jamaat from March 13-15 for the gathering in violation of the order of the Delhi government, which prohibited any meeting, including religious ones, that has more than 200 people, from March 12.

As Nizamuddin emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, health authorities in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir among others intensified efforts to identify those who attended the religious meeting as well as those who came in contact with them after their return to their homes.

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal linked the unusual rise in COVID-19 cases in the capital in the past two days to Nizamuddin, saying 24 out of the 97 cases reported till Monday night were related to Tablighi Jamaat, which was sealed on Tuesday.

"We fear that there will be more cases from Nizamuddin. It was highly irresponsible to organise this gathering when the whole world was fighting COVID-19. We don't see crowds near temples during Navratra festivals. None of the gurdwaras are open and no mosque is also open while the faithful pray at home," Kejriwal said.

In Andhra Pradesh, 18 fresh cases reported on Tuesday have either attended the Delhi meet or have contact with them while all the 15 fresh cases in Telangana have Tablighi connection. Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of 50 fresh cases linked to the Delhi gathering, taking the total of such people to 66 while 14 others who were in contact with these people have also tested positive for COVID-19.

In Karnataka, where the death of a 65-year-old man in Tumakuru due to COVID-19 was linked to the meet, there were diverging voices. Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said more than 50 people, including 23 foreigners, who reached the state after attending the event have been traced.

But Health and Family Welfare Minister B Sriramulu said 54 people from Bengaluru, Bidar, Kalaburagi and Ballari attended the event and authorities have quarantined 13 of them who later tested negative. “Others are being identified," he tweeted.

Following the death in Tumakuru, health authorities had isolated 68 primary contacts and 163 secondary contacts.

The health scare also prompted a thorough check-in Maharashtra after authorities learned that some 100 people from Maharashtra attended the congregation. In a mystifying sequence of events, the Philippines national in Maharashtra, who attended the Delhi event, first tested positive, then negative and later died due to COVID-19.

Assam health department went into a tizzy after it received lists of 456 people who had taken part in the meet from the state.

Jammu and Kashmir, too, is on high alert. A Srinagar-based preacher — who participated in the Delhi meet and later travelled to Deoband in Uttar Pradesh before returning home — died due to COVID-19.

Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have quarantined around 100 people who have come in contact with the preacher either directly or indirectly in the past one week. In Jammu and Kashmir, four associates of the preacher also tested positive besides eight others who came in contact with them.

A 70-year-old man died in Gujarat, who attended the meet, last week, following which authorities traced at least 17 people.

On Monday itself, authorities cordoned off the locality while they sealed the complex, which houses a six-storeyed dormitory and mosque among others. A case was also registered against the officials even as they claimed they had approached authorities seeking their help to transport those people stranded there following the lockdown ordered by Delhi government soon after Janata Curfew on March 22 and later by the central government.

The organisers' decision to continue with the programme on March 13-15 also came to question as Delhi government had banned any meeting, including religious ones, that has more than 200 people on March 12.

The first indication of the link to Tabliqi Jamaat headquarters came after authorities traced the visit of certain COVID-19 patients in Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar and Tamil Nadu to the Delhi gathering, which was also attended by people from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand among others, some of whom have already left.

Adding to the woes was the death of at least 11 people who were part of the gathering -- six from Telangana and one each from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir -- and one person in Tamil Nadu, who came in contact with a man who visited Delhi.

(Inputs from E T B Sivapriyan, Prasad Nichenametla, Suraksha P, Akram Mohammed, Mrityunjay Bose, Zulfikar Majeed, Sumir Karmakar and Satish Jha)