Tripura: 10 More Nizamuddin Markaz Attendees Tracked Down, 16 Sent to Quarantine

Agartala, April 5, 2020:

The Health and Family Welfare department of Tripura has identified 10 more persons who had visited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz.

The ten persons staying in the Bitarban area of Agartala are originally from Maharashtra and they have been put in institutional quarantine. Six of their close contacts were also shifted to quarantine along Saturday, sources in the health department have confirmed.

These persons were in home quarantine since they were from Maharashtra where the number of cases is high. However, their Tablighi link was revealed only recently. A surveillance team, under the leadership of ADM Siddharth S Jaiswal and CMO West Dr. Debasish Das Tripura, along with NHM Chief Aditi Majumder rushed to the spot today and shifted them to isolation.

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They have been lodged in institutional quarantine at the co-operative hostel building, we were later informed. Later on, addressing a Press Conference at the Civil Secretariat, state disease surveillance officer Deep Debbarma said, “The number of Nizam returnees has risen upto 50 now. As per the first hand information, we have identified 26 people. Later, 14 more have been traced in the North Tripura district who reached Dharmanagar boarding Tripura Sundari Express. Meanwhile, the persons who have been tested earlier have returned negative results and the swab samples of the newly identified persons are being tested." Results, he said, are expected on Sunday.

According to the returnees, they had arrived in the state on March 18 and stayed at the residence of their close relatives. As a precautionary measure, all 6 persons of a family the returnees used to stay with have also been shifted to institutional quarantine, he added.

According to local sources, all of them had come for religion purposes and got stranded in Tripura due to the lockdown. On being asked whether any legal actions would be taken against them or not for willingly not disclosing their identity, Health Secretary Debasish Basu said, they might not have revealed their travel history as no symptoms of the coronavirus had appeared yet.

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Meanwhile, speaking about the present status of the people under surveillance, Health Secretary Debasish Basu said, “Total 4,910 persons are in quarantine now. As many as 4,782 persons including 104 international travellers are under home quarantine. Total 128 including 1 international traveler have been kept in facility quarantine centers”.

“Altogether 191 samples have been tested till today, all have been negative. As many as 4,954 persons have completed the 14 days observation period so far”, Basu informed media.

Talking about the two positive cases from Tripura confirmed in Bikaner who also participated in the Nizamuddin markaz, he said, “Two citizens of Tripura who have been tested COVID-19 positive in Bikaner, Rajasthan are stable now and they are undergoing treatment in a Government hospital. They left the state on March 5 last and didn’t return to Tripura after attending the religious event Nizamuddin. Their families in Tripura are under observation now”.

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