225 people with link to Tablighi Jamaat meet placed under quarantine in Bengal: Official

Altogether 225 people attendees

of the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi and their contacts have been placed under quarantine in West Bengal, a senior health department official said on Friday.

So far, around 400 COVID-19 positive cases and about 12 deaths across the country were found to have links with the last month's event in the national capital.

The state government has identified almost all contacts of those who had taken part in the religious congregation, the official said.

"We are not taking any chance... Even those who had returned to the state before the countrywide lockdown have been placed under quarantine... everyone (with links to the Tablighi Jamaat event) have been put in isolation and medical tests will be duly conducted," he said.

 

Hours after the Centre had provided the names 71 people who had participated in the event, the state government traced 54 of them, the senior official said.

The others were subsequently located, he stated.

"All of them were taken to a Rajarhat facility, set up for suspected COVID-19 patients. The vehicles ferrying them were disinfected once they disembarked...

"Incidentally, two among those isolated have been admitted to the Beliaghata ID hospital after they exhibited symptoms of the COVID-19 such as fever and respiratory distress," the official added.