No Time To Play Hide & Seek, Dial 104: Odisha Govt To Jamaat Members

Bhubaneswar: Chief Spokesperson on COVID-19 Subroto Bagchi on Saturday exhorted people, who had visited Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area earlier last month or came in contact with the attendees, to come forward and share information with the government without any fear in the next 24 hours.

“With the entire humanity living under constant COVID-19 threat, this is not the time to play hike and seek. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has particularly urged the women members of such families to convince their men to dial 104,” he said.

Bagchi said that those who attended the religious congregation in Delhi did not do so either to get infected by COVID-19 or to transmit it to others. “Therefore, they have no reason to feel ashamed or fear. If they try to cover it up, their family members would be the first to get infected,” he said.

Community and religious leaders have also been requested to convince them to come forward. Fighting coronavirus is not the sole responsibility of the government, he added.

Bagchi said that of the 28 Jamaat members with whom the government could establish contact so far, 25 have tested negative for coronavirus. The three positive cases are from Cuttack, Puri and Jajpur.