Rajasthan's Tonk city emerging another hotspot for coronavirus, reports 16 cases in 3 days

Tonk city in Rajasthan is emerging another hotspot for the coronavirus spread in the state as 16 people have tested positive for the deadly disease in the past three days.

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With 46 fresh cases including 12 in Tonk and 9 Iran evacuees reported positive on Friday, the state's cumulative number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 179.

There were complaints from survey teams that people in some areas of Tonk are not cooperating and resisting screening.

Officials have been asked to ensure that field teams face no difficulties while they perform their duties.

The spread of the coronavirus in Tonk, which is a Muslim-dominated city, is mainly linked to four Tablighi Jamaat members who had tested positive on Wednesday, while 12 of their close contacts were tested positive on Friday.

In the wake of the emerging situation, a team of the World Health Organisation (WHO) from Jaipur visited Tonk on Friday and held discussion with officials.

Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

"A two-member WHO team visited Tonk today and did their assessment on works being done here. They were satisfied on seeing that protocol and guidelines for the containment of spread of virus are being properly followed," Tonk district collector Kishore Kumar Sharma told PTI.

He said curfew has already been imposed in Tonk and Todaraisingh town after positive cases were reported on Wednesday.

"Intense contact tracing, door-to-door survey and screening is being done," Sharma said.

The collector said people in some areas of Tonk were not cooperating with medical department teams and resisting screening and district administration and police officials have been asked to make sure that health workers face no difficulties.

In Jaipur, Health Minister Raghu Sharma said that misbehavior with medical teams will not be tolerated.

He also called upon the people, who attended a religious congregation in Delhi, to come forward for testing for their own safety as well as the safety of their family members and others.

The minister said situation in the state was under control but the number of cases was sharply increasing which was a matter of concern

"The number of positive cases has sharply increased in the last 24 hours. This is a matter of concern. I held a video conferencing with CMHOs and other officers to review the situation and took feedback from them. Necessary directions were also given to them," he said.

The new cases which were reported on Friday include 19 Tablighi Jamaat members.

Of them, 13 alone are in Jaipur. They are from states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu and 12 of them are under isolation in Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) hospital in Jaipur and one in Ramganj.

Two Tablighi Jamaat members confirmed positive are in Bikaner, as many as in Bharatpur and one in Dausa and one in Alwar.

Nine persons who were evacuated from Iran and kept in Indian Army's isolation facilities have also tested positive for the virus.

So far, twenty-one persons have been found negative after initially being reported positive and all of them have been discharged, officials said.