BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Health Department on Wednesday pegged the number of people who returned from Delhi’s Nizammuddin Tablighi Jamaat at a staggering 1,500. By Wednesday evening, the State Government had screened 800 of them and the process of tracing, screening and quarantining the rest is under way. Of the 800 screened so far, swab samples of 143 people have been sent for testing.
“About 1,500 people, who attended the congregation between March 8 and 20, returned to Karnataka in batches on different dates. We are monitoring those who have returned less than 14 days ago more closely, since their incubation period isn’t over. All of them have been sent to government-supervised quarantine,” Health and Family Welfare Department Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said on Wednesday evening.
The number is a whopping jump from Tuesday when the state had traced 79 returnees. Health minister B Sriramulu, earlier on Wednesday, had told the media in Bagalkot that only about 342 people from Karnataka took part in the congregation. Karnataka is compiling its lists of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi based on inputs received from the Union Government. The attendees are said to have returned in three batches. “Their travel history is being collected to ascertain how many returned in the last 14 days,” Akhtar added.