Over 400 from Punjab attended Tablighi Jamaat meet at Nizamuddin

The authorities in Punjab have traced 422 persons who attended Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi's Nizamuddin area.

A total of 432 persons from Punjab had attended the religious congregation and 422 out of them have been traced so far, an official spokesperson said on Sunday.

Of those who had been traced, 350 were in Punjab and their samples have been collected for the coronavirus test, the spokesperson added.

Six persons have tested positive for the infection while samples of 117 have been found negative, the spokesperson said, adding the reports of 227 samples were still awaited.

Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta had earlier said some 200 persons from Punjab had visited Nizamuddin and returned here, at different times, with 12 districts believed to be affected.

The Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz mosque in Nizamuddin West is feared to have emerged as an epicentre for coronavirus spread, following which a large area around the mosque has been sealed and an FIR lodged against its cleric for violating government orders.

The Telangana government on Monday had said that six people who attended the religious congregation between March 13 and 15 died due to coronavirus.

Authorities across the country subsequently swung into action to trace the contacts of those who went to the gathering, attended by thousands of people, including those from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. PTI CHS VSD RAX

RAX