A file photo of health workers after inspecting the Nizamuddin venue on Monday
The union health ministry on Wednesday squarely blamed the Tablighi Jamaat gathering, organised between March 13 and 15, for the steep spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the country. Luv Agarwal, the joint secretary at the ministry, said at his daily press briefing that the government was pulling out all stops in tracking down the people who had attended the religious congregation.
"Till now, there are 1637 COVID-19 cases, incl 386 new positive cases since yesterday. There've been 38 deaths. 132 people have recovered. The number of positive cases has gone since yesterday. One of the main reasons for it is the travel by members of Tablighi Jamat," said Agarwal.
Agarwal added that the spike in the number of cases doesn't represent the accurate trends across the country.
According to the home ministry, as many as 2,100 foreigners visited India for Tablighi activities since January 1 and all of them first reported at its headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin. In a statement, the ministry said while approximately 824 of them, as on March 21, were dispersed in different parts of the country, 216 people were staying at Nizamuddin Markaz, where several of them tested COVID-19 positive.
Deaths due to attendees of the event have so far been reported from Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana among other states, while positive cases have emerged for the first time in Assam.
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