Untraced foreigners could spread virus, experts fear

NEW DELHI: Early this week when the security establishment and health workers were close to completing the evacuation of 2,300 people from the Tablighi Jamaat’s headquarters in central Delhi, investigations led the police to conclude that there were more foreigners who attended the gathering organised by the missionary group who were staying in different mosques in the national capital.

On 31 March, the Delhi Police sent an urgent message to the Delhi government seeking help to locate the remaining Jamaat workers in the city’s mosques. The police communication listed 16 mosques.

Investigators were prepared to find 187 foreigners and two dozen Indian nationals who had shifted to the mosques after attending congregation meetings at the headquarters of the religious sect in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area, an official familiar with the matter said.

It turns out they were horribly wrong.

In four days, the combined teams of police, health workers and civil servants widened the net to cover a large number of mosques and have located over 800 foreigners linked to the Jamaat in the national capital. And they still have some distance to cover. “The big fear is that many of them would turn out to be positive cases, and could have already infected many others,” the official added. speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Jamaat workers have been placed in multiple government-run quarantine facilities across the national capital. The ones who were found in mosques are yet to be tested. That process is expected to begin in a day or two.

A senior official in the Delhi government’s home department confirmed the development but underlined that he couldn’t put a number on the foreigners found. “We are still in the process of getting final reports from the field,” he said on condition of anonymity. Security agencies who pored over the registers for foreigners maintained at the Markaz found 2,100 foreign nationals had touched base after landing in the country between March 1 and 18. Of them, 216 were still at the Jamaat headquarters when the crackdown took place and 824 had already left on missionary work.

“We believe that the remaining 900-odd foreigners are mostly hiding in mosques around the city,” an offcial involved in the operation said.

This person added that about 100 foreigners were found in mosques in the north-east district, 200 in the south-east district, 170 in the south district and seven in west district.

Officials recall that by the time they evacuated the Jamaatis from the Markaz this week, 24 people had already tested positive and nearly 200 had symptoms. The Delhi government hasn’t received all the test reports, but the Markaz-linked cases already make up for two-thirds of all coronavirus patients in Delhi.

By Friday evening, Delhi had 445 cases of Covid-19; of these, 301 can be attributed directly to the Jamaat gathering.