India felt 'big jolt' with the sudden spike in cases due to Markaz incident: Harsh Vardhan

India felt a "big jolt" with the sudden spike in cases following the Nizamuddin Markaz incident, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, asserting that the incident was a lesson for all communities that when a collective decision is taken by the country it must be followed with discipline.

At the same time, he said there was no point talking about it now as strict contact tracing of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation participants was done and those who contracted coronavirus had been treated.

In an interaction with BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao, Vardhan said that the state governments, the IT department, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Home Minister Amit Shah played an important role following the Tablighi Jamaat incident.

Asked by Rao if the incident was a take-off point, Vardhan said, "We feel bad raising the issue, but there is no doubt that around the second week of March when coronavirus was spreading rapidly across the globe and even after one and a half months had passed following the first case in India, the number of cases were very few, in a few states, when this unfortunate and irresponsible incident happened."
Talking about the status of containment of COVID-19 in the country, Vardhan said, Prior to lockdown, on March 25, 2020, the doubling rate was 3.2 when measured over a period of 3 days, 3.0 when measured over a period of 7 days and 4.1 when measured over a period of 14 days."