Assam to quarantine all returnees from Delhi's Tablighi Jamaat

The Assam government on Tuesday asked the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of all the 33 districts to take swift and strict measures to ensure that all those who returned to the state after attending a religious congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi are put on quarantine.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday identified 1,830 persons from various states, including 216 from Assam, who had attended a religious congregation at the Tablighi Jamaat's international headquarters in Nizamuddin Markaaz in southwest Delhi from March 13-15, even as 24 coronavirus positive cases have been reported from among those who congregated there.

"Those who returned to the state from the hotspot at the Hazrat Nizamuddin West locality of New Delhi must be quarantined by (Tuesday) evening," Assam's Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a series of tweets after holding a video conference with the DCs and SPs of all the districts.

He said that the Assam government is now in possession of a list of 299 persons who were present in and around the hotspot in Nizamuddin.

"We have alerted all the district administrations to find out if these people have returned to Assam and strict instructions have been issued to quarantine them if they are in the state," the minister said.

Sarma also appealed to the people from the state, who had attended the religious programme in Delhi, to report immediately to the health officials.

Assam Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Pijush Hazarika said that 216 people from Assam had attended the religious congregation.

"If any of them has returned to the state, we want them to make self-declaration. If their neighbours know about them, they can also inform the health officials. We would keep these people on quarantine and if they are already infected with coronavirus, we would provide them with treatment," Hazarika said.

He added that once the government has complete details of these people, it would make them public and take the subsequent required steps.

So far, Assam has not recorded any novel coronavirus positive case. Two positive cases have been found in two northeastern states -- one each in Manipur and Mizoram.

Health officials in Imphal and Aizawl said that the conditions of both the patients are stable.

In the first week of March, over 1,800 people from both India and abroad arrived in the Nizamuddin West locality of New Delhi to attend a religious congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat.

Many foreign nationals travelled to various states thereafter, creating a panicky situation. Nine Indian participants of the congregation have died of coronavirus. Of the nine, six were in Telangana and one each in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and J&K. IANS