COVID-19: HP top cop urges people who attended Nizamuddin event to come for check-up

Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Sita Ram Mardi on Wednesday appealed to those who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi to voluntary come forward for check-up.

The congregation took place early March in Delhi's Nizamuddin area and several people who attended it and then travelled to different parts of the country tested positive for COVID-19.

Nearly seventy-five per cent of the total COVID-19 cases in Himachal Pradesh are linked to the congregation, Mardi said.

Out of the total 27 coronavirus positive cases in the state, 20 are linked to the event in the national capital, he said in an over 8.30 minute video statement.

The DGP gave the message of live and let live and said we are leaving no stone unturned to break the transmission chain to check the spread of the virus.

There are a total of 28 COVID-19 positive cases in connection with Himachal Pradesh, including that of a 70-year-old Delhi resident woman, who was staying at a factory's guest house in the hill state's Baddi area since March 15. She tested positive at the PGIMER in Chandigarh on April 2 and died there.

Police spokesperson Khushal Sharma said as many as 601 returnees from the Delhi congregation and their close Tablighi Jamaat contacts have been identified and quarantined in Himachal Pradesh so far.

Providing data, Sharma said 97 people who attended the Jamaat's event have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Disaster Management Act for curfew violation or deliberately concealing their travel history.