81 Tablighi Jamaat returnees suspected in Bihar, 30 identified

Altogether 81 people are said to

have travelled to different parts of Bihar after attending a congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi's Nizamuddin, which has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, a top Health department official said here on Wednesday.

Thirty of the 81 people have been identified and subjected to medical examination, including 17 Kyrgyztan nationals, he said.

Principal Secretary, Health, Sanjay Kumar said 17 people have been identified in Patna and 13 others in Buxar, and efforts were on to track down the others.

Out of the 17 in Patna, 10 were in Kurji and seven in Phulwarisharif. They had been screened some time ago but had no symptoms. However, on Tuesday, their samples were collected and sent for testing and results are expected by the evening, he added.

 

Notably, all the 17 happen to be Kyrgyzstan nationals whose presence was reported to respective police stations on different dates earlier this month.

They were later let off since they had been preaching in mosques in the city for some time and had valid documents, but kept under close observation.

However, now they are being kept in quarantine while their reports are awaited.

Earlier last week, a 65-year-old preacher from Malaysia, who attended the congregation in the national capital, had travelled to Araria where he died though the district administration said the death was caused by a cardiac arrest and the deceased showed no symptoms of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the principal secretary added, the rise in the number of cases in Bihar to 23 is a matter of grave concern.

Most people testing positive have a travel history. It has therefore been decided to trace out all those who have returned to Bihar from outside by March 18 and collect their samples for testing. Earlier, we had been testing only those who showed symptoms. But now we have changed the approach, he said.