Covid +ve Indonesian toured state with group for 3 days
It was the draw of luck. Quite literally.
A group of 10 travelling Indonesian preachers of Islam, one of whom tested positive for Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) here at the Gandhi General Hospital on Tuesday, after being brought from Karimnagar following suspicions of infection, could have gone anywhere else in the country.
It was a lottery held after the group met with similar groups of preachers in the old city area of New Delhi to choose which group should head where that determined these Indonesian preachers making their way to Karimnagar.
The discovery that one of the 10 Indonesians is suffering from Covid-19, meanwhile, has set alarm bells ringing in the state government. Their presence in Karimnagar was discovered on March 16, but the group is believed to have been travelling in Telangana since March 14.
Health minister Etala Rajendar told a news conference here on Monday that the group landed in New Delhi from Indonesia on March 9. Upon arrival, they were screened at Delhi, after which, they took a train to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, where they are believed to have spent a couple of days.
From Bhopal, they travelled to Telangana and reached Ramagundam town in Peddapalli district.
But health department officials here in Telangana said they were not very sure of their actual arrival date in the state or of their activities till Monday, when they were sent to the city. Those details are still being ascertained.
However, it was learnt that from Ramagundam, they arrived in Karimnagar in a vehicle on March 14 and spent the night at a mosque near the Karimnagar collectorate. The next day, Sunday, they approached the police, along with their local contacts, to report their arrival as foreigners in district and seek permission to hold a meeting at the mosque. It was then that the police ordered that they should first get screened for health at a local hospital and bring back health reports. The Indonesian preachers, it was learnt, first went to a private hospital for checkups and went back to police, who informed them that the screenings should be performed at a state government-run health facility. The next day, Monday, the group first went to the government-run mother and child health care centre, from where they were directed to approach the government area hospital. Once at this hospital, doctors who screened them, noticed that one of them was suffering from cough, cold and a fever, symptoms typical of Covid-19 and immediately recommended that they should be sent to the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad. It was then that the group, along with three locals — one from Hyderabad and two from Karimangar — were sent to the Gandhi Hospital by Karimnagar district health authorities.
It was learnt that the usual practice for such groups of preachers is to pick a ‘markaz’, an area served by a mosque or a group of mosques, through a draw of lots and go there and spend a few days teaching the reading of Quran and teaching people the correct way of performing Namaz.