Coronavirus outbreak: 30 per cent of India's COVID-19 cases linked to Tablighi Jamaat congregation

New Delhi, Apr 19: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that about 30 per cent of the total coronavirus cases in India is linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event that was held in March at Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi.

According to reports, as many as 4,291 of the 14,378 COVID-19 cases in the country were found to be linked to this religious congregation.

Addressing the media, Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, "We found that 84 per cent cases in Tamil Nadu, 63 per cent in Delhi, 79 per cent in Telangana, 59 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 61 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 91 per cent in Assam and 83 per cent in Andaman and Nicobar were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event."

On Saturday, the government said the implementation of the containment action plan is yielding good results in 23 states and Union Territories.

"Kodagu in Karnataka is a new district that has been added to this list along with Mahe, Puducherry that has not reported any fresh cases during the last 28 days," Agarwal said.

"As of now, the mortality rate for COVID-19 is 3.3 per cent. Further analysis of the data indicates that out of the deceased 14.4 per cent of people are in the 0-45 years age group, 10.3 per cent in the 45 -60 years age group, 33.1 per cent in the 60-75 years age group and 42.2 per cent are above 75 years old," he added.

According to the health ministry, a total of 14,378 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in India. As many as 1,992 people, or 13.82 per cent of total cases, have been cured and discharged. A total of 43 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 to 480.