NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, MARCH 31
The union government on Tuesday said that there has been an increase of 146 novel coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of COVID-19 positive cases to 1,397 across the nation.
The total number includes 1,238 active cases, and 124 people who have been cured/discharged/migrated and 35 deaths. Three deaths – two in Punjab and one in Maharashtra – were reported on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a religious congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat held from 1 to 15 March in Delhi’s Nizamuddin West has become a point of concern for authorities after several people showed symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in the congregation.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered the registration of an FIR against a cleric for leading the congregation.
57 new COVID-19 cases in TN
Tamil Nadu on Tuesday saw as many as 57 new COVID-19 cases, the highest spike in a single day so far and 50 of them had travelled to Delhi to attend a religious congregation recently, the government said.
The aggregate number of virus cases stood at 124 in Tamil Nadu, with at least 77 of them having links to the congregation held in the national capital recently.
While the government confirmed seven new cases earlier in the day (of which five men had visited Delhi to take part in a religious congregation), Health Minister C Vijayabaskar confirmed 50 more new cases on his twitter handle.
Health Secretary Beela Rajesh told reporerts that of the 50 cases, 45 had travelled to Delhi to participate in the religious meet at the national capital”s Nizamuddin West area.
Apart from the 45 people, four of the positive cases were from Chennai and another from Kannyakumari, she said.
All have been admitted to medical college hospitals in Kannyakumari, Tirunelveli, Chennai and Namakkal and they are stable, she said.
The Secretary said: “We could find 515 members and others who had attended the conference should please come forward to identify themselves so that we can place them in quarantine and provide appropriate treatment so that transmission of the infection to their families and the larger community could be stopped.”
The contacts of the 515 members were being traced as well, she said. Chief Secretary K Shanmugam said efforts were afoot to ”isolate” all the participants of the conference from Tamil Nadu soon to stem the further spread of the contagion.
A government release said 1,000 plus people from Tamil Nadu had attended the Delhi Nizamuddin meet and said several of the returnees could not be traced by the respective district administrations and urged such persons to act responsibly and get in touch with the authorities.
Maharashtra
The cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra, which is one of the worst-affected states by the pandemic, have gone up substantially, reports said on Tuesday adding that there are now 302 positive cases in the state. News18 reported that there are 59 cases in Mumbai, two each in Pune, Thane, KDMC and Navi Mumbai.
Kerala
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that seven positive cases have been reported in the state, two each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod. He said that additionally, one each was reported in Kollam, Thrissur, and Kannur. The total active cases are now 215 in the state.
Karnataka
Thirteen new cases of coronavirus were reported in Karnataka in the last 21 hours, reports said. The total number of positive cases in the state rose to 101, including three deaths and eight discharged/cured cases. Additionally, reports said that 88 COVID-19 patients (including one pregnant woman) are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while two are in the ICU.
Assam
In Assam, a 52-year-old person has been found positive for coronavirus, state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. Sarma said that it is Assam’s first COVID-19 patient. He is undergoing treatment at Silchar Medical College and his condition is stable, the minister said.
Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh, the total number of coronavirus positive cases on Tuesday rose to 66 in the state, of which 44 positive cases have been reported in Indore. Five people have died due to the infection till now in the state.
Rajasthan
However, in what comes as a positive development, several patients have been successfully cured of the disease across the country. News18 India reported that in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, 13 out of 26 positive cases have been cured.
West Bengal
The first three COVID-19 patients in West Bengal have recovered, reports said, adding that they will remain in quarantine for the time being. Meanwhile, two new cases were confirmed for the infection in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 27.
Telangana
At least 24 members of the Tablighi Jamaat tested positive in Delhi and another six died in Telangana due to the virus, nearly two weeks after attending a congregation in its Nizamuddin West centre.
Following this, the Centre has asked all states and Union territories to immediately trace and quarantine the estimated 2,000 foreign workers of the organisation present in India.
The Home Ministry in a letter to all chief secretaries and police heads told them to deport all foreign Jamaat followers who test negative for the deadly virus to their countries “by the first available flights”.
“Presently, it is estimated that about 2,000 foreigners, on tourist visa, from over 70 countries are spread all over the country for Tabligh work.
Majority of these foreign nationals belong to Bangladesh (493), Indonesia (472), Malaysia (150) and Thailand (142) and their period of stay in the country is up to six months,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in the letter.
Some Jamaat members in Erode district of Tamil Nadu and eight Indonesian nationals, part of a Jamaat team in Hyderabad in Telangana, tested positive for the virus recently.
Kejriwal said that the congregation at the Nizammudin markaz (centre) in Delhi, which was attended by around 2,000 people, was “highly irresponsible”.
