Govt says spurt not a national trend, 386 new cases in 24 hours till last night
In its biggest spike till date, India over the past 24 hours till Wednesday night recorded 386 new cases of coronavirus taking the tally to 2,012 with the Government blaming the spurt in cases on the travel by members of Tablighi Jamaat and asserted that it was not a national trend.
“The number of positive cases has gone up since Tuesday. One of main reasons for it is travel by members of Tablighi. This is not a national trend,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health.
According to Ministry’s website, the total number of active COVID-19 cases reached 1,637 in India by Wednesday noon, whereas the death toll has risen to 42 from 32 recorded on Tuesday.
Globally, the death toll due to novel coronavirus in the US has reached 3,400, surpassing China. The global death rate has reached past the 44,000-mark while around 9 lakh are infected by COVID-19 across nearly 170 countries.
Dr R Gangakhedkar, scientist from ICMR, said so far, 47,951 tests for COVID-19 conducted in country out of which 4,562 tests done at ICMR network labs on Tuesday. On a query, he said Hydroxychloroquine is not to be used on every person.
“This is not for everybody. It is just a demonstration study for doctors and their contacts of lab confirmed cases caregivers and data will be analysed which will tell if we can recommend or not the drug to the people who come in their contacts,” he said.
Agarwal said 74 flights operated till date under Lifeline Udan for transporting medical cargo across the country. So far over 22 tonnes cargo was transported on March 31, he said.
Following the Supreme Court directives, the Health Ministry on Wednesday called for providing a social protection to migrant workers, saying they are prone to social, psychological and emotional trauma in lockdown situations.
Immediate concerns faced by such migrant workers relate to food, shelter, healthcare, fear of getting infected or spreading the infection, loss of wages, concerns about the family, anxiety and fear.
“Sometimes, they also face harassment and negative reactions of the local community. All this calls for strong social protection,” the Ministry said in a document.
It further said migrant workers faced the situation of spending a few days in temporary shelters, which may be quarantine centres, while trying to reach to their native places, are filled with anxieties and fears stemming from various concerns, and are in need of psycho-social support.
Meanwhile, several State Governments have continued the difficult task of tracking the movements of Tablighi attendees in the Delhi conference, including foreigners and their “human contacts” as more Jamaat delegates who transited through Jamaat Markaz (centre) in Nizamuddin East were quarantined in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra while 140 of delegates were reported untraceable in Hyderabad.
Over 250 foreign nationals have been quarantined or admitted to isolation wards in various States in the country following the disclosure that they had attended the Tablighi conference. A total of 16 States have been searching for Tablighi members.
According reports, at least 200 from Karnataka, 140 from Andhra Pradesh and 45 from Telangana have been identified. The total number of those who attended the conference varies from State to State with Maharashtra listing 185 and Karnataka estimating 342 to have participated in the meeting.
With the Tabligh incident spiking the coronavirus numbers in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister and asked the State to trace out the missing Jamaat members who attended the Delhi conference. The State DGP held a Press conference to give his account on the issue.
The aim of the search for Tabligh attendees is to prevent them from inadvertently creating new clusters of infection across the country. The magnitude of the task is immense: Three southern states — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka — were trying to track at least 2,500 people, many of who had tested positive for coronavirus.
In Kashmir 855 people (at least 167 attendees and people in contact with them) were being traced, only nine had been found.
In Tamil Nadu, the State was tracking at least 1,500 people, 300 of whom were still untraceable as of Tuesday night.
Nearly 300 people from across Karnataka attended the congregation, State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Tuesday, creating a “dangerous situation”. Only 26 of the delegates (all from Bidar) have been traced. The Tumakuru preacher who attended the meet is learned to have had direct contact with at least 82 people, including 45 family members. The 26 delegates who were traced all tested negative, State Health Minister B Sreeramulu tweeted.
In UP, police in 18 districts had tracked down 128 of the 157 people from the State who had attended the congregation. While 120 were found quarantined in Delhi, eight were traced to their native villages and cities and have been quarantined at home. A search is on for the remaining 29. The police also traced 95 others who had attended Jamaat event and were not on the list of 157 from UP shared by the Delhi Police.
A total of 185 people from Maharashtra had attended the congregation, officials said. Maharashtra Minority Development Minister Nawab Malik, however, said he had learned “from the media” that 109 people from his State had attended the meet.
“I have asked officials to find out how many actually attended it. We are also talking to members of the Tablighi Jamaat to find out,” he said. The Ahmednagar district administration later said it had found 35 returnees, mostly foreign nationals.
At least 20 villages across Bandipora, Pulwama, Shopian and Budgam in J&K have been identified as red zones and the administration has prepared a 50-page list of people from the UT who either attended the event at the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz or had been on contact with attendees.
A total of 1,548 people have been evacuated from the Nizamudddin Markaz. Of this, 441 have been hospitalised because they exhibited symptoms while the remaining 1,107 people have been quarantined. Of those hospitalised, 24 have already tested positive for Covid-19 and, given the symptoms and history of direct contact with positive cases, doctors said there was a high likelihood of many others testing positive.
Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh announced that by Tuesday at least 67 of the Tablighi Jamaat cluster had tested positive, taking Tamil Nadu’s positive cases to 124, the third highest after Maharashtra and Kerala; 50 of these infections were recorded on Tuesday.
The TN Government also admitted that at least 300 of the 1,500 delegates from the State were untraceable. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami appealed to people to come forward for screening.