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    Nizamuddin Basti cordoned off after spike in Covid-19 cases

    Synopsis

    District authorities took around 200 people from the cluster to three government hospitals and around 2,000 people were home quarantined in and around the basti. Nine preachers who came from Andaman & Nicobar tested positive for Covid-19. A 65-year-old preacher who attended the convention passed away in Srinagar last week.

    Important--PTIPTI
    Medics, wearing masks, walk as the police cordoned off an area in Nizamuddin after some people showed coronavirus symptoms, in New Delhi, Monday, March 30, 2020.
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has cordoned off the Nizamuddin basti on Monday after the cluster showed a spike in Covid-19 cases. Over 1,500 people from different parts of the country and Asia had attended a convention of Islamic preachers held by the Tableeghi Jamaat here earlier this month, where some of them contracted the illness.

    District authorities took around 200 people from the cluster to three government hospitals and around 2,000 people were home quarantined in and around the basti. Nine preachers who came from Andaman & Nicobar tested positive for Covid-19. A 65-year-old preacher who attended the convention passed away in Srinagar last week.

    Delhi Police have cordoned off the area around the mosque in Nizamuddin, near the ‘dargah’ (shrine) and drones are being deployed to ensure strict implementation of lockdown. Nearly 400 houses are under observation. Residents of the basti on Monday held a meeting and appointed committees to ensure the lockdown was implemented and there was no panic. There are five exit points which are being guarded by the police, but 15 exit points within the basti where we have appointed our own people to stop people from going from one house to another. Owners of all 41 shops, including 5 chemists have been told that they cannot have more than three customers at one time,” a resident said. Some with mild symptoms have also been lodged in a school.

    Leaders of Muslim organisations said they had requested the Delhi government and the Delhi Police last week to make arrangements for the return of participants. In the letter, a copy of which ET has accessed, Maulana Muhammad Saad of Banglewali Masjid who heads the sect, said, “it is requested that due to lockdown and non-availability of transport, approximately 1,200 Tableeghi Jamaat workers have been stranded inside Tabligh Jamaat Markaz at Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin.


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