2 suspected patients die after function in Delhi’s Nizammudin

OF THE TWO PERSONS, ONE WAS FROM TAMIL NADU AND THE OTHER FROM KASHMIR. ALL THE PARTICIPANTS AGED OVER 60 HAVE BEEN ADMITTED TO HOSPITALS IN DELHI AND SIX HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE CORONAVIRUS POSITIVE

NEWDELHI: Two persons have died of suspected Covid-19 in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area from a group of people who had come from various parts of the country and abroad to take part in Tablighi Jammat, a religious gathering of the Muslim community.

Of the two elderly persons who died, one was from Tamil Nadu and the other belonged to Kashmir. All the participants aged over 60 had been admitted to various hospitals in Delhi. Out of them six people have been found to be coronavirus positive.

Shoaib Ali, the spokesman of Tablighi Jamaat, however, said, “We have no information of anybody testing positive for coronavirus.”

Admitting that two persons have died, Ali said that one of them Masgir, 63, complained of fever and cough and was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital on Saturday.

“But they have not given us any report whether he died of coronavirus or not,” he said.

Shoaib Ali also denied that the death of the second person was due to coronavirus.

“On March 6, an elderly person, 65, from Sopore, Kashmir, had come t o participate i n Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area. He died of a heart attack in Kashmir last week,” Ali said. However, according to reports in the Kashmir media, he was coronavirus positive.

Ali confirmed that the entire area has been cordoned off and about 2000 people have been quarantined and are being tested for coronavirus in this thickly populated area of South Delhi.

This is the largest single group being tested for Covid-19, which is transmitted easily from person to person.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police on Monday cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin where several people showed symptoms of coronavirus, an official said.

The gathering of around 200 people was organised without permission from authorities, police said. “After we learnt that such an event was organised, we served notice to them for violating prohibitory orders and restrictions imposed owing to lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus,” a senior police official said.

“Several people have been taken to hospital after they showed symptoms of coronavirus and are being tested,” he said.