Coronavirus: 100 more positive cases take Tablighi Jamaat cluster count in Tamil Nadu to 364

CHENNAI: As the authorities stepped up their outreach to members of the Tablighi Jamaat on Friday, 100 more from Tamil Nadu tested Covid-19 positive among those who attended a congregation of the group in Delhi last month. With this, 364 people have tested positive in the TJ cluster in the state. Two people outside the cluster too tested positive on Friday taking the total number of cases in Tamil Nadu to 411.The two – a 52-year-old man who had a travel history to the US and a 60-year-old woman who has an autoimmune disorder – are residents of Chennai. “She was already vulnerable. As of now, we don’t know where she contracted the infection,” said a senior public health officer.
Tamil Nadu chief secretary K Shanmugam met 15 community and religious leaders on Friday and sought their help to reach out to TJ members and their families to contain the virus spread. Many of the TJ members have been isolated in hospitals and quarantined, and their families across Tamil Nadu retained within containment zones. At least 1,500 TJ members from Tamil Nadu had participated in the Delhi conference. Around 400 remained in Delhi while the rest returned home.

Spike in cases because of isolation, testing of TJ cluster, says health secretary
Health secretary Beela Rajesh said, “The number of cases has gone up because we have been able to isolate and test people in the cluster (TJ),” said health secretary Beela Rajesh. “In the last few hours, 200 more people have come. We are drawing samples from them for testing,” she said.
The state tested 376 people with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), admitted to various hospitals. “Three of them tested positive. All of them had a contact history,” said Beela Rajesh. Health minister C Vijayabaskar said the state had screened 2,10,538 passengers and 1,580 people were admitted to isolation wards.
As many as 364 people from the Delhi group tested positive while 303 others from the group tested negative. “This does not mean that they are all safe. Since the incubation period is 14 days, they still carry the risk of turning positive... Which is why we insist they remain in quarantine,” the health secretary said. Those who test positive would be moved to hospital quarantine even if they are asymptomatic.
The focus of the health department now is to extend the containment area so that the disease does not spread to the community. Door-to-door screening with a list of fever cases for intense monitoring is helping contain the disease.
Of the 102 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu on Friday, 38 are from the southern districts. This takes the total number of infected persons in the south to 147. A doctor from Kayalpattinam municipality who attended the TJ meet in Delhi has also tested positive.
Salem collector S A Raman said of the six Covid-19 patients, including five Indonesian TJ missionaries, under treatment in the district, three had recovered and tested negative on Friday. They will be discharged from hospital after getting the state government’s nod.