The twin Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (AP) have been experiencing a steep rise in the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive cases since the last week of March.
Telangana and AP have recorded 11 and four deaths, respectively, to date. The combined count of Covid-19 positive cases stood at 673 till Monday night.
Telangana reported its first double-digits figure of 13 on March 18, when eight Indonesians, who visited Karimnagar town after attending the Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi in March, tested Covid-19 positive.
The mid-March congregation has turned the Jamaat headquarters at Nizamuddin into a Covid-19 hot spot.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters on Monday night that out of 364 Covid-19 positive cases recorded so far, only 50 belong to the state, including 30 who returned from abroad recently and then infected 20 of their family members. Of these 50, 35 have recovered and discharged from hospitals and the rest are on the road to recovery, the CM said.
The CM said the state saw a spike in Covid-19 positive cases after the Nizamuddin event. A total of 314 new cases were reported in the second phase, including 11 deaths. “Of these 314 people, 308 are still undergoing treatment and the remaining six have been discharged,” he said.
The CM said that the state authorities have identified 1,089 Jamaat attendees so far. Besides, another 265 people, including 93 family members of the Jamaat attendees, have been traced and tested for Covid-19. “It was found that over 1,000 of those who attended the Nizamuddin event weren’t infected. While the test results of the rest would be known in a couple of days,” the CM said.
The state authorities were also on the lookout for another 3,017 people who might have indirectly come in contact with these Jamaat attendees, he added.
Andhra Pradesh, too, has seen a similar upswing in Covid-19 positive cases after the Jamaat attendees returned home. The state, which reported its first double-digits figure of 11 Covid-19 positive cases on March 26, crossed the three-figure mark within six days on April 1, when it reported 113 cases.
By Monday night, the number of Covid-19 positive cases has shot up to 309, including five who have recovered and discharged from hospitals.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a review meeting on Tuesday afternoon, where the state health department officials said that out of 304 Covid-19 positive patients undergoing treatment in hospitals, 280 are linked to the Jamaat meet, including their primary contacts.
The state government has identified 1,085 people who attended the Jamaat event. The tests were conducted on 997 attendees and 194 tested Covid-19 positive.
“Another 2,400 people were identified to have come in contact with them, including their family members, relatives, friends and others who travelled with them from Delhi to Andhra Pradesh. Of them, 84 tested Covid-19 positive,” the officials told the CM. The authorities conducted tests on 205 people who had returned from abroad and 11 of them tested Covid-19 positive. Another six persons were infected among the 120 who had come in contact with people with recent foreign travel history. While seven tested Covid-19 positive among the 134 who showed symptoms of the viral disease, the officials added.
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