Over 50 per cent of total cases in Uttar Pradesh linked to Tablighi Jamaat: Principal Health Secretary

A total of 314 people have been found positive in the state till now, of which more than 50 per cent are connected to Tablighi Jamaat, Uttar Pradesh Principal Health Secretary Amit Mohan said on Tuesday.

"A total of 314 people have been found positive in the state till now, of which 168 are connected to Tablighi Jamaat. This shows that more than 50 per cent of the cases are linked to Tablighi Jamaat," Mohan told media here.

"The cases were reported across 37 districts of the state. We have sent 6073 samples for testing. A total of 5595 turn out to be negative and 314 turned positive," he added.

He further told that a total of 22 people have recovered from COVID-19.

He informed that psycho-social-counselling is available with the health department helpline on 18001805145.

"A group of 100 people have been formed for psycho-social-counselling and we have started the service from today," he added.

Commenting upon the government efforts to deal with the situation arising due to COVID-19, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi said that Chief Minister has given directions to set up testing labs in all district hospitals across the state.

"Nearly half of the entire state population have received the ration. A total of 10,803 cases were registered under Section 188 of the IPC during the lockdown and around 17,000 vehicles have been seized and nearly Rs.5 crore recovered from the violators of the lockdown," Awasthi said.

Awasthi informed that a total of 1551 people who attended the Tablighi Jammat in Delhi have been identified and 1257 out of them have been examined and sent into quarantine.

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction for the government to impose a complete ban on all activities of the Tablighi Jamaat with immediate effect.

The petition sent to the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde also sought direction for government to demolish the building of the office of the Tablighi Jammat at Nizzamuddin in New Delhi under the provision of MCD Act.

Over 1,000 of the total 4,421 coronavirus cases in India are linked to Tablighi Jamaat gathering. Hundreds of people who are related to Tablighi Jamaat have been quarantined.