Two Tablighi Jamaat attendees test Covid-19 positive in Punjab

Chandigarh: Two members of the Tablighi Jamaat, who were at the congregation in Delhis Nizamuddin Markaz in March, tested positive for the coronavirus disease in Punjab, taking the total number of such cases to 49, officials said on Friday.

“Two more positive cases in the district and they have attended religious congregation in Delhi. They are in isolation and contacts being traced,” Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan said.

Both the patients belonged to Jagatpura village, located just on the outskirts of Chandigarh, an official told IANS.

In the worst affected Mohali district, the Jagatpura area has been totally sealed off after confirmation of Covid-19 outbreak, with mass sampling being done in this and Nayagaon area, both located on the periphery of Chandigarh.

Dayalan said 48 contacts of positive cases were tested negative in the district and reports of three patient awaited.

Earlier, a 65-year-old man from Mohali, a 42-year woman from Ludhiana, a 62-year-old man from Hoshiarpur and a 70-year-old man from Nawanshahr had succumbed to the infection.

The latest death was of Padma Shri Nirmal Singh Khalsa, former Hazoori Raagi of the Golden Temple, who died in Amritsar on Thursday morning.

Taking a tough stand in the light of Delhi’s Nizamuddin incident, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday prohibited all gatherings, including religious, and said the state would impose a total ban on all congregations, irrespective of the religion involved.

The Chief Minister also ordered 21 days of quarantine for all those who had returned to the state from Nizamuddin in Delhi since January and asked the police and administrative officials to move aggressively to track, trace and isolate all such people.

He directed the police and health department to constitute special teams to track and follow up on those who had returned to Punjab from Nizamuddin.

IANS