Spike in COVID-19 cases ‘not a national trend,’ says ministry
Ministry explained that sudden surge occurred after travel by Tablighi Jamaat members in different parts of the country and asked state govts to identify, quarantine all Tablighi foreigners
A sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in India doesn’t represent the accurate trends across the country, is no national trend and raises no worry, the union Health Ministry asserted on Wednesday.
Lav Aggarwal, the ministry’s joint secretary, explained that the sudden surge occurred after the travel by the Tablighi Jamaat members in different parts of the country.
He told the media that 1,637 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the country so far with 38 deaths from across the nation. Out of the 1,637 cases, 132 people have recovered.
“Till now, there are 1637 Covid-19 cases, incl 386 new positive cases since yesterday. There’ve been 38 deaths. 132 people have recovered. The number of positive cases have gone up since yesterday. One of main reasons for it is the travel by members of Tablighi Jamat.”
Agarwal said the Railways is preparing to setup 320,000 isolation& quarantine beds by modifying 20,000 coaches. Modification of 5,000 coaches has begun. Lifeline flights have been started to transport essential commodities like testing kits, medicines and masks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday interact with the chief ministers of all states to take stock of the situation. He will interact with them through video conferencing.
Modi had interacted with Indian ambassadors and high commissioners abroad and urged them to remain alert to developments in global efforts.
“Coming together for India, PM Modi interacted with Indian Ambassadors/high Commissioners abroad and urged them to remain alert to developments in global efforts against Covid-19 including breakthroughs to help our national efforts to fight Covid-19,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.
On Tuesday night, Modi had a telephonic conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the situation arising out the pandemic.
The Prime Minister’s Office in a statement said that Modi expressed his condolences to President Macron for the loss of lives in the ongoing Covid 19 epidemic.
Wipro Ltd, Wipro Enterprises Ltd and Azim Premji Foundation, have together committed Rs 1125 crore towards tackling the unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis arising from the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
“These resources will help enable the dedicated medical and service fraternity in the frontline of the battle against the pandemic and in mitigating its wide-ranging human impact, particularly on the most disadvantaged of our society,” they said in a statement.
The religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin at the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat sect has emerged as one of the country’s top coronavirus hotspots. Its chief cleric Maulana Saad and six others have been charged by the police.
“Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava said the Maulana and his assistants have been charged under the Epidemic Disease Act.
The first information report says they were responsible for the gathering and they allowed visitors to continue living in the building despite notice issued to them on March 24, the day the country went into a total lockdown to fight the spread of coronavirus.
The Home Ministry has asked state governments to identify and quarantine all Tablighi Jamaat foreigners and deport them after medical clearance.
Thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members, including those from other countries, attended the gathering in March, disregarding all coronavirus warnings and precautions. Many then travelled to different states, widening the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Police have vacated over 2,000 members from the Markaz Nizamuddin, the Tablighi headquarters, in the past three days.
The Delhi Police Crime Branch said it is examining an audio recording of a sermon posted on a “Delhi Markaj” Youtube channel, in which the speaker says there is no need to follow social distancing advised by the government.
Across the country, 128 people with coronavirus have been traced to the gathering and many more cases are feared.
The Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary movement with members across the world, preaches a return to orthodox Muslim ways.