Coimbatore: "Around 82 people from Coimbatore, Mettupalayam, Anaimalai, Pollachi and Annur had attended a Tablighi Jamaat conference in Nizammudin, New Delhi, between March 21-24. Religious preachers from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia had participated in large numbers at the conference. Initial investigation reveal that most of the members who participated in the conference have showed symptoms of COVID-19, hence are quarantined", informed the District Collector on Monday.
Coimbatore: "Around 82 people from Coimbatore, Mettupalayam, Anaimalai, Pollachi and Annur had attended a conference at Nizammudin in New Delhi, between March 21-24. Religious preachers from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia had participated in large numbers at the conference. Initial investigation reveal that most of the members who participated in the conference have showed symptoms of COVID-19, hence are quarantined", informed the District Collector on Monday.
He informed that all 82 people who attended the meeting from Coimbatore district, their families and neighbourhood has been quarantined. Instructions have been given to them to stay indoors for the next 14 days.
Briefing on the situation in Coimbatore, the Collector said that "As the spread of COVID-19 is wreaking havoc across the globe, it's important for the public to stay alert and protect themselves and their family. Considering the importance of
the situation, a nationwide lockdown, under section 144, has been announced until April 14."
"The Coimbatore District administration, along with the Police department, Public Welfare Department, Revenue Department, Town Panchayat and rural local bodies department, have joined hands and are working together to create awareness and to maintain the sanitary conditions of the District." he told.
As reitrated by the CM, people must practice social distancing norms and ensure they are maintained without fail, he added.
"Despite efforts by District administration, to stop the spread of the virus, the infection has been passed on by a different source. As a result of this, people with symptoms, their houses and people from the same streets, people who were in close contact with the affected people are all being isolated at their houses. All the affected areas are announced as containment zone and thoroughly fumigated", he noted.
He also insisted the importance of people coming forward to declare their symptoms and advised people with symptoms of cold, cough, fever, breathlessness and throat pain to visit GH or primary health care centre.
"It is therefore important that the public must not be careless about this infection that has jolted the entire world. We must follow the guidelines issued by the government, strictly and that is the only way to prevent an outbreak of this deadly virus", informed the District Collector.
The Nizamuddin congregations
Last week nine Islamic people from Anamalai had travelled to New Delhi to attend religious congregation held by Tablighi Jamaat at their international center Tableegh Markaz. The main conference was held on March 8,9 & 10, 2020. And since that was over hundreds of them returned back to other parts of India from where they have participated. It is understood that there have been several other small events related to this conference until the lockdown was announced on March 24th, 2020 and the group from Anaimalai is believed to have attended one of these events. Officials have now confirmed that many of the people who attended the congregation could have contracted the virus from the preachers who were from Indonesia, Thailand and Krygystan.
The Tablighi Jamaat is an Islamic revivalist organisation that focuses on reviving the faith of Muslims in the religion. One of the main focuses of this group is to conduct meetings with Muslims, and urge them to return to the basic tenets of the Islamic faith.
The Jamaat conference in Delhi was attended by thousands of Indians and foreign nationals. Following the meeting, the Indian participants returned to their respective home states – along with a handful of foreign preachers who had planned to work with the mosques in Erode, Karimnagar and other places.
Almost 50 preachers from Indonesia, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan who attended the conference in Delhi, dispersed to work with mosques in many districts including Chennai. Kancheepuram and Thanjavur. The Erode group arrived in the city on March 11 from New Delhi. According to the Erode District Collector C Kathiravan, 33 people from the district had attended the Jamaat conference in Delhi. As of March 30, it has 19 out of Tamil Nadu’s 67 COVID-19 cases.
After the first person – Patient 5 – tested positive, within days, all of them were isolated in hospitals and 17 others have also tested positive. All the 19 persons who are now undergoing treatment in IRT Medical College Hospital, Perundurai had come in contact with the Thai nationals – Patients 5 and 6 in the press release given by health officials – directly or indirectly. It is to be noted that one of the Thai internationals who died in ESI was declared that he was coronavirus negative out of this cluster of people who came to Erode. This group of people have visited 3 mosques in this area.
The TN State government through contact tracing earmarked nine people of Anaimalai who attended the conference and have decided to subject them to COVID-19 test. Of the nine, seven people have been shifted from Pollachi GH to ESI Hospital in Singanallur, Coimbatore.
The Health Department has isolated all others in contact with the nine people. Through fire engines, most parts of Anaimalai is presently being fumigated. It is now estimated that around 82 people might be positive for the coronavirus infections in Coimbatore and surrounding regions
As a result of this, roads from Anaimalai to Kaliapuram, Kottur, Vettaikaranpudur and Pollachi have been closed. It may be noted around 1500 Islam people from Tamil Nadu had attended this meeting at New Delhi on March 1st week. Islamic preachers from countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and China took part in the conference. The Islamic preachers from Thailand, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan, have visited various places including Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet and Adirampattinam in Thanjavur.
The spread to Coimbatore, Pollachi, Madurai, Salem
Further, four contacts, a doctor and 3 others (including a 10-month old) from home, of Patient 5 and Patient 6 in Coimbatore, have also tested positive. It was the death of a 54-year-old man, who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital on March 25, that raised concerns among health department officials that the meeting in Delhi could have been the epicentre of the spread.
The deceased had also attended the conference, according to some sources, and had met the Thai nationals in Delhi. While the Thai nationals reached Erode with a group of Indians, the Madurai man had returned to his residence on March 12. Three of his family members have also been tested positive for COVID-19 and are under treatment in Madurai Rajaji Government Hospital.
In Salem meanwhile, four out of 11 people who attended the conference – all of them Indonesian nationals have tested positive for coronavirus, along with a tour guide who was showing them around the city. The remaining seven people in the group are in isolation.
Officials in Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem and Erode have been scrambling to trace more people who had attended the gathering at Delhi, screening and quarantining them and their contacts. In Erode town, nine streets have been closed off since March 24. Over 130 families in and around the mosques are under home quarantine. The Erode district Collector also said that since Sunday, containment measures have been implemented in certain pockets of the district, where these 33 people stayed and moved around.
The preachers were have been staying in local mosques in these districts to visit the homes of the Muslims to preach Islam. It may be recalled that on Sunday, a female railway doctor who along with four from her family were tested positive at ESI Hospital in Coimbatore. The doctor reportedly had treated a person who was in touch with the Thai Nationals in Erode. Last week, the doctor was transferred to Podanur railway station in Coimbatore.
The state authorities are now on the look-out for 1,500 people who attended the Jamaath conference in New Delhi in the first week of March. Out of the 17 samples tested among the group that had returned from Delhi, 16 have tested positive for Coronavirus and are from Erode. Of the list, the health officials have already traced 981 people, government has stepped up its investigations to trace and track the remaining 500-odd people. Sources say that the people who attended the conference are from Coimbatore, Pollachi, Anaimalai, Trichy, Perambur, Ariyalur, Erode, Pudukottai, Chennai and Nagapattinam. Authorities feel that monitoring can be easy if these people come in person and declare that they had been part of the conference.