PUDUCHERRY: Three persons who attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi have tested positive for COVID-19 in Puducherry on Wednesday.
The test result of another five who attended the congregation at Nizamuddin, Delhi are awaited.
Among them are a 51-year-old and 37-year-old, both belonging to Ariyankuppam and another 54-year-old from Thiruvandarkoil area of Puducherry, Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mohan Kumar said.
They have been admitted to isolation ward at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute ( IGMCRI), which has been designated as an exclusive COVID-19 treatment hospital.
“All three who tested positive are asymptomatic even now. They returned to their village on March 24. We have started contact tracing from Tuesday itself,” he added.
One of the men who tested positive has reportedly sold meat in a shop at Ariyankuppam market on Sunday with several people have purchased from him.
This is the first three cases in Puducherry region of the UT taking the tally of total COVID-19 cases in the UT to four. The first case of the UT, a woman who was in Mahe region, an enclave in Kerala. The woman has recovered.
In all 21 people from Puducherry have attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting, out of which 17 are from Puducherry and four from Karaikal, as per information received by the government, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said.
Among them, 11 have stayed back in Delhi.
Now the test reports of five persons of the nine traced who attended the Nizamuddin Congregation are awaited.
Two are from Katterikuppam and Thirubhuvanai who have been kept at the isolation ward in a private medical college were subsequently brought to a government isolation facility at IGMCRI.
Their throat swab has been sent to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research(JIPMER) for testing to check for COVID-19, the Chief Minister said.
The other three are from Karaikal whose throat swabs are being tested at Thanjavur facility and the results are awaited.
Ariyankuppam area from where the two positive cases were reported has been cordoned off from the rest of Puducherry and the borders have been sealed, CM said.
Similarly the same measures have been taken for Thiruvandarkoil area.
He added that everyone who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation are being tracked and appealed to such people to voluntarily come and disclose it.