Around 1,200 people from Telangana attended Tablighi Jamaat, will screen all of them, says state health minister

Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Wednesday said that as many as 1,200 people from the state had attended Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi and the state government will screen all of them for the novel coronavirus.

"First coronavirus case was detected in Telangana on March 2. We have kept 26,000 in quarantine out of them around 31 positive cases were found. We had thought that Telangana will be free from COVID-19 by April 2 but from people who had gone to attend gathering in Nizamuddin some were found COVID-19 positive," Rajender told ANI.

"Around 1,200 people from Telangana had attended Markaz gathering in Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin, some of them were found COVID-19 positive, six of them died. In the last three days, only those who had gone to Delhi for Markaz have tested positive for COVID-19. We are screening all those who attended the gathering. We have traced more than 700 people. We are isolating them and providing them treatment," he said.

As many as 15 people from the state had attended an event at Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Delhi in March and their relatives have been diagnosed coronavirus positive in Telangana on Tuesday, Telangana Public Health and Family Welfare Department said.

The department said that there are 77 active COVID-19 positive cases in the state.