364 of 411 COVID-19 Cases in TN Linked to Tablighi Jamaat Event

Total number of cases in Tamil Nadu has risen to 411, of which 364 are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi.

Tamil Nadu has gone up the chart in the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases.

(Photo: The Quint)

Tamil Nadu continues to see a rise in COVID-19 cases, with 102 new cases reported on Friday, 3 April, by State Health Secretary Beela Rajesh. Of these, 100 cases are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting which was held in Nizamuddin, Delhi.

This takes the total number of cases in the state to 411, of which 364 are linked to the Delhi event and spread across 20 districts.

75 new cases were announced on Thursday, and of them, 74 are connected to the same event. The remaining case was a person in Chennai who had come in contact with someone from Kerala with a history of travel to a coronavirus hotspot.

The state saw its biggest spike in COVID-19 cases so far on 1 April when 110 new persons tested positive.

Of the 1,500 people from the state who had attended the meeting, 1,200 returned.

The government and corporations had put out several calls asking for people who have attended the meeting to voluntarily check into hospitals. Following the call, several have come forward in the last 24 hours.

Presently, samples of all 1,200 persons has been taken and results are awaited for a few. The health secretary said that over 5000 ground workers are doing a containment plan in the ares where these persons reside.

“Entire focus of the government is now on containment. Even if there is one positive case, a buffer zone is created and door-to-door surveillance is done. Around 5 lakh people being covered under this process.”

Dr Beela Rajesh, Health Secretary

The health secretary assured that the samples of all those from Tamil Nadu who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event would be taken and sent to 17 testing labs across the state. “Give us 1-2 days’ time and we will give complete list of their contact and travel history as there were two groups of people who attended – preachers and participants.”

“We have new testing kits. Each lab is working round the clock and does about 100 tests a day. We are doing swab and blood test for everyone who has reported themselves,” she added.

When questioned if there has been a delay in tracing these persons, she said, “There are many questions in tracing them and we are doing that. Our aim is to increase testing facilities, training and get ourselves up to speed on this. We are talking to our officers daily on video call. This is a new virus from China and is now a pandemic.”

She also clarified that the state was still in stage 2 and so it isn't being deemed necessary to test people who don't have contact history or travel history.

“It was a successful interaction with community leaders today. We agreed that we should work in a coordinated manner. More details will be given by the government soon.

Dr Beela Rajesh, Health Secretary

Several cases in Telangana, New Delhi and Andhra Pradesh have reported travel history to this congregation in the capital.

An FIR has been registered against Maulana Saad and others of the Tabligh-e-Jamaat for violating directions given by the government regarding restrictions on gatherings, Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava said on Tuesday.