AGARTALA, April 1 - Eighteen people from Tripura, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin area of Delhi, have been put under institutional quarantine today following a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Along with the attendees, their family members were also sent to institutional quarantine as a precautionary measure. Their swabs were collected and sent for testing for COVID-19, but there was no official confirmation yet.
Following Tuesday�s development, the MHA alerted the State Government to trace all the clerics who had attended the two-day Tablighi Jamaat congregation and put them under quarantine after some of the attendees tested positive for COVID-19.
Based on the tip-off, surveillance teams launched a massive manhunt and traced as many as 18 clerics who had returned to the State after attending the religious programme in Delhi. Later, they were quarantined for 14 days. Sources said that a few clerics might not have returned to the State as yet.
The cleric from Assam, who tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday and admitted to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital, might have shared the berth in the Agartala-bound Rajdhani Express with passengers from Tripura.
Sources said that though the COVID-19 patient from Assam got down at Karimganj, some of his co-passengers in the Rajdhani Express might have disembarked in Agartala.
Calls made to Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Dr Debasish Basu and State Surveillance Officer Dr Deep Debbarma for their comments on this issue went unanswered.
