Some residents of Hindpiri locality –the area from where Jharkhand's first COVID-19 case came to fore – on Thursday stopped an inspection team of the health department from entering their houses, suspecting that the data collected from the locality will be eventually used for National Population Register (NPR), a highly placed official of the State Health Department said.
"Our team visited Hindpiri to inspect the houses in the area, but the locals resisted. Some of them even claimed that the data will be used for NPR. I wish to clarify that none of our data will be used in the NPR," Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said.
A team of 100 health workers, 100 police personnel and 100 volunteers visited the locality –dominated by a particular community– to inspect if the virus had infected locals who may have come in contact with the Malaysian woman, who tested positive earlier this week. The woman, Ranchi's first Coronavirus patient, was apprehended along with 16 other foreign nationals from a mosque in Hindpiri on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
However, the health workers were allowed to inspect the houses in the area in the evening only after members of the Anjuman Islamia committee intervened and pacified the infuriated mob comprising mostly illiterate people, sources said.
President of Anjuman Islamia, Ibrar Ahmed said that some rumours about poor treatment of people at the isolation centre had gone viral on social media, and some provocative videos were also circulated over WhatsApp. "The locals said that they were not informed about the inspection beforehand, and therefore, they were not ready for it," he said, adding that the Anjuman Islamia members later convinced the locals to cooperate with the inspection team.
Meanwhile, raids were conducted in different localities across Jharkhand on Thursday to apprehend people who visited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi. However, the Government could not share the exact number of Tablighi Jamaat attendees in Jharkhand.
"We are trying to identify people who have connections with Tablighi Jamaat. It is difficult to state exact figures as many people from across the State are under scanner," a health official said, requesting anonymity.
Police have by now apprehended nearly 30 foreign nationals from Ranchi alone, sources said. All the foreign nationals apprehended in the past one week attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation – a religious gathering that is said to be the hotspot of Coronavirus in India.
According to a report shared by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Thursday, the Government has by now collected samples of 421 Coronavirus suspects and only one of them tested positive. Test results of 38 suspects are awaited, it said.