Chennai: Tamil Nadu has recorded 50 positive cases of COVID-19 all of whom had either attended a religious event at Nizamuddin in Delhi or are linked to them in mid-March.
On Tuesday morning, the government health bulletin said there were seven new coronavirus cases of which five were traced to have attended the event in the national capital.
In the evening, Health Secretary Beela Rajesh said 45 new cases have been reported all of whom had links to the congregation. Of these 45 patients, 22 are from Tirunelveli and 18 from Namakkal. Health Minister C Vijayabaskar also confirmed the new cases on his Twitter handle.
Rajesh said all of the patients have been admitted to medical college hospitals in Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Chennai and Namakkal and their condition is stable, she said.
In all, the state saw 57 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, which is the highest spike in a day till now. The aggregate number of virus cases stood at 124 in Tamil Nadu, with at least 77 of them having links to the congregation.
With this, the government identified two new clusters in Nammakal and Tirunelveli districts, apart from the one that was detected in Erode district on Monday from where 10 cases were reported.
“We are in the process of using the police department to trace the people who attended the conference. Some of them have given phone numbers that are switched off now," Rajesh said, while urging the attendees to come forward on their own, failing which the entire state would suffer.
The government said that of the approximately 1,500 people who took part in the meet in Delhi, 1,131 had returned, about 800 were traced and 300 could not be found so far and the rest were quarantined by the authorities in Delhi.
The government also said efforts were afoot to 'isolate' all the participants of the conference from Tamil Nadu soon to stem the further spread of the contagion.
A large number of delegates, including people from Indonesia and Malaysia, had attended the congregation organised by Tablig-e-Jamaat from March 1-15.
Of them, at least nine people have died and several tested positive for coronavirus, turning the centuries-old ‘markaz’ (centre) into one of the biggest virus hot spots in India.
(With inputs from PTI)
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