342 from State including 1 from Mandya, 13 from Kodagu, 12 from Chamarajanagar attended Delhi religious gathering in March

Mysuru / Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government is on tenterhooks, mounting efforts to track nearly 150 people who are among the 342 from the State who attended the religious congregation of Tabligh-e-Jamaat in Delhi between Mar. 8 and Mar. 20 while the others have been identified and quarantined. 

The Government has information that 342 people from the State had attended the event last month in Nizamuddin in Delhi. The gathering had hosted 4,000 people and the event has turned out to be the hotbed of COVID-19 spread in the country. 200 of 342 have been quarantined at various parts of Karnataka. 

“Efforts are on to trace out people who attended from the State and their contacts, it is a huge task…we are at it,” Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, adding he has also appealed for help from the community leaders in this mission. As many as 62 foreign nationals who attended the event have also returned to Karnataka and 50 of them had been quarantined while 12 others had left for their nations earlier, he said. 

The Government intensified the search after it emerged that several attendees of the religion event have been affected by COVID-19 and six people had died in Telangana, while one each in Andaman and Nicobar and Karnataka.   A 60-year old man who died last week in Tumakuru district had participated in the Delhi meet and tested positive for the infection. 

Meanwhile, Mysuru District Minister V. Somanna has confirmed this morning that 75 persons from Mysuru attended the event. “62 persons from Mysuru city were there at the Tabligh event and 45 of them have come back to Mysuru and have been kept under home quarantine. Over 17  persons have not returned to Mysuru and 13 people from Mysuru rural belt have returned home,” he said. 

Six people had attended the event from H.D. Kote, one person from Bannur and one from Periyapatna have been put  under home quarantine. 

“Two persons from Mysuru have been kept under home isolation in New Delhi and two persons have been kept under observation in Bengaluru. We have details of all the 75  persons who had gone to the event from Mysuru and among those who have returned home no one has been infected by COVID-19. Detailed health check-up has been conducted on all the returnees and they are under Government-supervised quarantine as a precaution,”  Minister Somanna said. 

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha appealed to those who attended the congregation to voluntarily report to the authorities and take medical treatment. 

One person from Nagamangala

Mandya Superintendent of Police Parashuram told Star of Mysore that only one person from Mandya (Nagamangala) had attended the Markaz event. “The State Government had sent us a list of eight persons to be traced. We launched a search operation. Though they have given Mandya as their address, they are living outside Mandya and one person’s phone location shows that he is in Uttar Pradesh. We are tracking the movements. Otherwise, there are some preachers in certain religious places in Mandya and they have come from Gujarat. They have spent 25 days here and their health is stable. There are 24 outsiders in Mandya district and they have been checked and even they are under quarantine,” the SP said. 

13 from Kodagu

From Kodagu, 13 persons attended the event and all are from Kushalnagar. Of them, five persons have been put under quarantine in New Delhi and five have gone to their relatives’ houses in other States. One person has returned to Kushalnagar and has completed the 14-day mandatory quarantine. The remaining two persons and the one person who has completed the 14-day isolation will again be put under observation and they will not be allowed to mix with others, said a communication from Kodagu District Administration. 

12 from Chamarajanagar

From Chamarajanagar, 12 persons participated in Nizamuddin Markaz. Of them, four persons have been traced and put under quarantine, said Chamarajanagar District Minister S. Suresh Kumar. While two persons are from Kollegal, the remaining two have been traced to Chamarajanagar. Efforts are on to trace the remaining nine Markaz attendees, he added.