Guwahati: At least 148 people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi''s Nizamuddin last month have been quarantined in different districts of Assam, even as the number of coronavirus cases in the state has risen to 16. All 16 COVID-19 positive cases had attended the religious congregation in Delhi, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday. He said the exercise of tracing the contacts of those who tested positive for the disease is going on. Nine of the 56 persons from Hailakandi district in south Assam, who returned from Nizamuddin, have been put under home quarantine, police officials said.
In Kamrup district of lower Assam, 37 people attending the Jamaat congregation were shifted to Sarusajai Stadium quarantine camp in neighbouring Guwahati, while another 10 persons were quarantined in ingimari Model Hospital, said Joint Director Health Dr N S Tishya. Three of them have tested negative, Tishya said. In adjacent Barpeta district, the eight persons who had come from Nizamuddin and kept in isolation in FAA Medical College and Hospital were found negative for COVID-19. In another lower Assam district of Nalbari, three of the 11-member Jamaat team who have come from Shambli district in Uttar Pradesh after attending the congregation in Nizamuddin and took shelter at Mollapara in the district tested negative for the virus, Deputy Commissioner Bharat Bhusan Dev Choudhury said.
One member of the team, a 19-year-old man, tested positive for the disease on Wednesday, Sarma said. The man was shifted to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday night for COVID-19 treatment, Choudhary said, adding the results of other seven members of the team are awaited The 11-member team from Uttar Pradesh had arrived in the district on religious purpose. It was supposed to visit various mosques. The deputy commissioner also said following the detection of the positive case, the district administration has picked up 37 persons so far who were in contact with the Jamaat team. They were admitted to an isolation ward of Nalbari Swahid Mukunda Kakati Civil Hospital, Choudhury said.
All the 37 persons will be shifted to Sarusajai quarantine camp, he added. The entire Mollapara area, where the eleven persons had taken shelter since March 21, has been sealed off, Choudhury said. He also said that of the 37 persons, 24 are directly related to the Nizamuddin case. A total of 29 people had visited Nizamuddin from Nalbari district and five of them are yet to return, the DC said. Three persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Goalpara district on Thursday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 16, Health Minister Sarma said. The state had reported 12 cases on Wednesday and one on Tuesday. While eight patients are getting treated at a hospital in Jorhat, four are undergoing treatment in Guwahati and one in Silchar, he said.
There are 347 people in Assam who returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, and out of them, 230 people have been traced and located so far while the rest could not be reached as their mobile phones were switched off and family members were not cooperative, the minister said. Sarma appealed to all those who attended the congregation as well as to those who came in contact with them to get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine themselves.
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