PATNA: All law enforcing agencies have jointly launched a state-wide manhunt for all the 86 Indians and 57 foreign nationals,who had gone from Bihar's different parts including Patna recently to participate in Nizamuddin based religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat recently.
The entire police force in tandem with intelligence wings has gone into a mission mode to locate the whereabouts of all the participants from the state in a short time span. Director General Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey told the media that efforts have been taken on a large scale to trace all the 86 participants of Tablighi Jamaat in addition to 57 foreign nationals.
Principal secretary of the health department, Sanjay Kumar said that apart from 81 Indians, there were 57 foreign nationals who had also stayed and participated in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation from Bihar.
"Out of 57 foreigners, 19 have already been identifed in Patna and other districts. For the rest, a massive search is going on across the state through scientific ways and intelligence sources", he said.
He said: "Around 3,383 passengers have come in Bihar between March 15 and 23 from abroad. And all of them would be traced out and screened thoroughly".
Besides them, 1,80,651 migrants have also returned to different districts of Bihar amid the lockdown in the last few days.
"The state government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the 14 days of observation to them in their respective districts.They were screened at the entry border points of state also", he said.
On Wednesday, the total count of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 23 in addition to one death and three cured so far with two fresh COVID positive cases reported from Begusarai and Nalanda.
Kumar said the two fresh cases detected on Wednesday have travel history to the Middle East. "All out efforts have been taken to place them under quarantine and concerned district administration of Nalanda and Begusarai districts respectively are isolating the habitation areas of these two positive cases", Kumar said.
"We have seen that even those who initially had no symptoms have been later diagnosed positive. Thats why medical tests of all who have come from foreign would be done without fail ", he said.
According to a consolidated figure, around 3,383 people have come from abroad to Bihar in March alone.
Among the total number of those who have come from abroad, 653 passengers belong to East Champaran, 548 to Darbhanga, 478 to Saran, 255 to Muzaffarpur and 257 to Siwan and rest to other districts.
Meanwhile, the details of international travellers are being gathered by hi-tech app named as "Garur App", sharing data from all tour operators including the flights, rail and roads.