Amit Shah talks to CMs Yogi Adityanath, Nitish Kumar on 'Markaz-like' events in Bihar & UP

After surge of positive cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) amid attendees of Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz event and Majnu ka Tilla gurdwara scare, sources report on Wednesday, that Home Minister Amit Shah has spoken to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on similar religious congregations reportedly held in ir respective states. Sources furr state that Home secretary Ajay Bhalla will furr take up issue with respective state home secretaries and DGPs. Currently, 1800 Markaz attendees have been sent to 9 hospitals and quarantine centers, informed Health Ministry. India saw biggest spike on Tuesday with 382 cases testing positive.

PM Modi to address all state CMs via video-conference on Thursday amid Markaz COVID scare

Markaz occupants evacuated, building sanitised

Earlier in day, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has informed that in a 36-hour operation all 2361 occupants in mosque have been evacuated of which 617 have been hospitalised and ors have been quarantined, with entire building being sanitised. Delhi Crime Branch which has booked Markaz chief Maulana Saad for violating lockdown is currently searching for him by raiding possible hideouts. Currently, 23 cases from Jammu and Kashmir, 20 from Telangana, 17 from Andhra Pradesh, 9 cases from Andaman, 2 cases from Puducherry, 1 from Assam etc have tested positive and have been confirmed as attendees of event.

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What is Nizamuddin COVID-19 scare?

On Monday, sources reported that a religious programme was organised at Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters Markaz Nizamuddin mosque between 13-15 March which had over 3400 attendees from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan and from several states in India. After attending meeting, prior to nationwide lockdown, 1500 of se attendees returned to several parts of country, possibly spreading COVID-19 virus. On Sunday, around 50-70 people, who were hiding in a mosque, were taken to LNJP hospital as y were all COVID-19 suspects – 24 have tested positive. mosque has claimed that while y were letting small groups of attendees leave from venue prior to Janta Curfew, several were stuck in area – which has w been entirely quarantined – owing to nationwide lockdown.

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Attendees contact tracing on

Ministry of Home Affairs informed that 1746 individuals were staying in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz as of March 21 - 216 foreigners, 1530 Indians. While 1339 Tabligh Jamaat workers are being screened and quarantined, government has banned all ir tourist visas for violating conditions and is seeking deportation of attendees testing negative. Apart from se individuals, MHA stated that 2137 persons have been identified in different states. Most stated have quarantined attendees tracked by m and are contact tracing ors. highest number of attendees were from Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh. Or states like Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Punjab, etc too are tracing and quarantining attendees. Currently, India's COVID-19 cases stand at 1637 with 38 deaths. 

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