From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: A mosque premise at Athgaon area in the heart of Guwahati city has been declared a containment zone and sealed off by Kamrup (metro) district administration for 14 days from on Friday after three persons related to a March 12 congregation in the mosque have tested COVID-19 positive.
“The mosque is virtually emerging as a possible hotbed for COVID 19 infection with three positive patients being linked to this mosque,” Assam Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said here on Friday.
Dr Sarma said, “We have come to learn that there was a maswara (consultation meeting) at the Athgaon Masjid on March 12, which was attended by people returning from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi. Initially, we were given the impression that the Jamaat returnees had merely spent the night as a stopover. We had to put the pieces together to learn that there was this meeting there, attended by 100 people.”
Three of the people who were in the meeting, including two Tablighi Jamaat returnees, have already tested positive for COVID 19, while the administration has been able to get a list of another 55 people, including six more Jamaat returnees, who had attended the meeting. All are currently in quarantine.
“Just like (Nizamuddin) Markaz, Athgaon Masjid is now emerging as a hotbed. We wish they would have informed us earlier about the meeting, but they didn’t reveal it,” the minister added.
On the health condition of the novel coronavirus patients in the state, Dr Sarma said while one patient from Hailakandi district died due to COVID 19 complications in the wee hours of Friday, the condition of the other 28 patients was stable.
Five patients, including the case from Guwahati which is so far the only corona virus case in the state not linked to the Nizamuddin Markaz event and is admitted at MMC Hospital here, have tested negative for the infection.
Among the other recovered patients three are admitted at Golaghat civil hospital and another at MMC Hospital at Guwahati. The minister added that the recovered patients will be discharged only after completion of 14 days of quarantine, as per government of India guideline.