Bangalore: Nearly 1,000 people from different parts of Karnataka, who are linked to Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi, have been screened so far following the inputs provided by the Centre and police, and 11 have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Karnataka government has been on tenterhooks since Tuesday night, mounting efforts to track nearly 1,500 people who might have arrived in the state after taking part in the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi last month. It has turned out to be the hotbed of COVID-19 spread in the country.
“Based on inputs given by police and Central government, nearly 1,000 people linked to Tablighi Jamat, Nizamuddin have been screened by Health department till Thursday morning. Out of them six have been found symptomatic,” Karnataka Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said in a statement. “Further, more than 200 swab samples have been drawn from them,” he added.
Tests are going on in labs, and out of nearly 100 preliminary test results, 11 from Bidar district are COVID-19 positive. Contact tracing and isolation works are already on. Among all the identified Tablighi Jamaat members, 19 are foreigners,” Pandey further stated.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa too said that in Bidar district, a total of 91 people linked to Tablighi-Jamaat were tested and 80 were found to be negative while 11 were positive.
Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said that in this city 31 who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meet were tested and all results have come out negative.
However, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said only 391 Tablighi Jamaatworkers have been identified so far.
“… 391Tablighi Jamaat workers have been identified, and based on the advice of doctors they have been placed under home or institutional quarantine and this process will continue,” Yediyurappa said. “We expect the numbers to go up in the days to come as more and more people are traced,” the chief minister added.
Noting that the process was on to identify people who travel to other districts or states for preaching and are unable to return due to lockdown, Yediyurappa said respective district administrations have been asked to identify them and quarantine them wherever they are.
PTI