Tablighi meet attendee dies in Hyderabad, no info on cause

 An active member of Tablighi Jamaat, who had attended the Delhi meeting of the organization, died at a private hospital in Hyderabad. There was no information or confirmation yet on the cause of death.

Ahmed Abdul Muqeet died at Yashoda Hospital at Malakpet late on Tuesday. A hospital spokesman told IANS that the state health authorities had collected samples from the body for coronavirus test and it is for them to announce if he died of Covid-19.

Muqeet was under treatment at the private hospital for pneumonia and other ailments. His wife was also under treatment at the same hospital. The couple took ill four days ago and was admitted to the hospital.

If confirmed, the death will be the seventh COVID-19 in Telangana. All of them had attended the meeting held at Tablighi headquarters in Nizamuddin area in southwest Delhi from March 15-17.

The death of five was announced on Monday whereas the first death was reported on Saturday last. Four of them died in Hyderabad and two others in Nizamabad and Gadwal.

More than 1,000 people from Telangana are believed to have attended the meeting, which also had participants from other countries.

The Health Department on Tuesday reported 15 new cases of Covid-19. All of them were participants at the Delhi meet or their relatives.

It has appealed to all those who attended the meeting to report to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad to undergo tests and assured that the government will bear the cost of their screening and treatment.

As many as 603 people were identified in Hyderabad alone. Officials said 200 teams of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), police and revenue department surveyed 463 houses of the participants. They found suspected symptoms in 374. While 41 of them were shifted to government-run quarantine facilities, others were kept under home isolate.

Officials in other parts of the state were also identifying people who had gone to Delhi.

Home Minister Mohammed Mehmood Ali has appealed to all those who had attended the Tablighi meet to voluntarily come forward to undergo test.s He said this was in the interest of their near and dear ones and the entire society. IANS