Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital Director Kishore Singh has said that people belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat are threatening doctors and hindering essential work including tests for coronavirus. Speaking on how Tablighi Jamaat people are creating trouble for doctors and hospital staff, LNJP director said many of them (attendees of Tablighi Jamaat event) are objecting against testing and feel that they do not need admission. So, this put the security of our staff at risk. Now, police have been deployed around three blocks where they have been kept.
Further speaking on the Tablighi Jamaat people admitted to the hospital, LNJP director Kishore Singh said, "We've 216 COVID-19 patients out of which 188 belong to one group (attendees of Tablighi Jamaat event). We had received reports of 24 patients from the group out of which 23 tested positive. This is alarming."
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Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have seen a sudden rise across the country wherever people belonging to Tablighi Jamaat had travelled after attending a religious event at Nizamuddin West. States like Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Telangana, including UTs Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir have witnessed an increase in cases of coronavirus cases. In fact, Arunachal Pradesh which has only one case of COVID-19 was a man who attended Jamaat's congregation in Delhi.
Delhi alone has witnessed a sudden spike in the COVID-19 cases after Tablighi Jamaat's development as there are over 150 confirmed coronavirus positive cases out of which over 50 belong to Jamaat.
Amid the 21-day coronavirus lockdown in the country, a Delhi mosque at Nizamuddin West was found to be sheltering more than 2,000 religious followers who are said to be members of the Tablighi Jamaat. After the matter came in front of the authorities, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said "After 36 hours of operation with the help of medical staff, DTC, till 4 am whole building was empty. A total of 2,361 persons were found out of which 617 have been admitted to the hospitals, and the rest of them have been quarantined.
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