Nizamuddin Mosque Gathering, A Ticking COVID-19 Time Bomb; Preachers Also Travelled To Odisha

New Delhi: The death of six persons from Telangana, who attended a religious prayer meeting from March 1 to 15 in Nizamuddin area in Delhi, triggered panic in the national capital on Monday.

The Delhi government quarantined 200 people in the Nizamuddin area, which has now been cordoned off, and launched a massive contact tracing as people from Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana and Tamil Nadu along with delegates from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia had attended the three-day religious conference.

At least 100 people were tested for COVID-19 at Lok Nayak Hospital on Monday night and their results are awaited.

Thursday saw death of a 65-year-old man in Srinagar. He too had attended the mosque gathering and returned to Kashmir by train. Six other attendees tested positive in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the following day.

According to a report published in the Hindustan Times, 37 persons who were at the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat have been infected by coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has decided to blacklist around 800 preachers from Indonesia, who had attended the meet.

The preachers had then travelled in batches to Telengana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha to conduct group meetings in mosques, The Hindu said in a report.