Chennai: Tamil Nadu recorded 17 more Covid-19 positive cases on Monday and at least a score more suspected to be infected, while the state's anti-Covid machinery swung into action to trace the 980 Tamil Muslims who took part in a Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) conference in New Delhi and returned home. While 28 are believed to be from Coimbatore, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami confirmed that 10 were members of the TJ delegation from Erode.
A 65-year-old Tamil Nadu Muslim preacher of TJ, a religious outreach organization, passed away on Sunday and several others in a mosque in Delhi’s West Nizamuddin showed Covid-19 like symptoms, triggering panic among the hundreds of inmates. At least 1,500 Muslims from TN participated in a three-day conference that ended on March 23. While around 900 religious leaders returned, taking flights and buses home, 600 remained at the Banglewali masjid, rubbing shoulders with 800 other TJ followers hailing from Delhi, UP, Ranchi and Andaman & Nicobar Islands besides other parts of the country.
Palaniswami said that among the 17 fresh Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu on Monday, 10 from Erode were among the 981, who returned from the TJ conference. “The numbers rose from this team,” he said. Grappling with rising cases back home, Tamil Nadu now has the onerous task of tracking the 900-odd Tamil Muslims, who returned to the state, besides identifying their families and contacts, screening and isolating them.
Tamil Nadu’s district collectors are on the job of tracking those who took part in the religious meeting. “We have isolated 33, out of which 10 have tested positive. The operation is still on to identify the Muslim members and their families,” said Erode collector C Kathiravan. In Coimbatore, 44 of the 61 had been traced and 41 put to test. “The families were refusing to get screened. We were firm with them,” said Coimbatore collector K Rajamani.
TJ headquarters spokesman Tamin Ansari said that Delhi health authorities and the police have been taking the inmates of the Masjid in batches of 65 for screening to government hospitals for the past three days. “They were screening those who were above 65 years of age,” said Ansari. He said the conference, a bi-annual exercise, was organized for TJ ulemas of every state to assess the intra-religious conversions. The March 21-23 conference was for the Tamil Nadu chapter.
Many of them arrived in Delhi by March 18. “While several headed home by flights on March 23 night, many others hit the road in buses and vans ahead of the national lockdown,” said Ansari. There were at least 800-odd pilgrims from other parts of the country as well, already staying at the masjid, he said.
