Coronavirus: 300 people admitted in hospital after Delhi mosque gathering
New Delhi/IBNS: Over 300 people in Delhi have been admitted to different hospitals across the city after a gathering at a mosque which hosted visitors from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan.
This comes as a man died and 10 more have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the event earlier this month.
Following the death, people started worrying about infection spread from the gathering of Tableeghi Jamaat preachers at Alami Markaz Banglewali Masjid in Nizamuddin in mid-March.
A Delhi medical officer said: "A major area of Nizamuddin has been cordoned off by the Delhi Police and several people have been taken to hospital after they had showed Covid-19 symptoms. They are being tested currently."
"After we learnt that a religious gathering was held at Markaz in Nizamuddin without permission during the coronavirus lockdown, we have served notices to the organizers for violating prohibitory orders and restrictions," said DCP South East Delhi, Rajender Prasad Meena.
"We are looking into the matter, strict action will be taken if required and FIR will be registered accordingly," he said.
There were some 1,200 people from south India, present at the mosque who were earlier sent back.
A day after the March 22 Janata Curfew, before domestic flights were banned, the police escorted them to the airport.
However, there are still about 2,000 remaining in the shrine complex in south Delhi.
According to reports, they are staying in a six-floor dormitory. The police said there are 280 foreigners.
What is more worrying is that the people who left Delhi travelled to several parts of India.
The preacher died last week after he returned to Kashmir. He had reportedly visited the Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh before returning to Kashmir.
Police are now carrying out contact-tracing to identify other virus-exposed persons in Delhi, Srinagar and Deoband.
Meanwhile, 1.3 billion people across India are observing the 21-day lockdown called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to combat the community spread of the Coronavirus.
As of now, India has a total 1262 number of positive cases with deaths mounting up to 36. So far, 114 people have recovered from the infection.
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