Thanks to Tablighi, COVID-19 doubling rate is 4.1 days and not 7.4

New Delhi, Apr 06: The States have started sending in their confirmations about the cases that have been booked against members of the Tablighi Jamaat, who have now been termed as the super spreaders of the coronavirus.

Despite repeated requests and advise, Maulana Saad remained adamant and went ahead with the congregation. His adamance not only put the lives of his followers to risk, but also ensured that the number of cases across the country spiked as the members passed on the virus to many others.

Currently 21,000 Tablighi workers and their contacts have been placed under quarantine. Most of these members have been traced and it was nothing short of a nightmare for the agencies to track these persons and their contacts. The hunt for several more Tablighi members is still on. In Uttarakhand an ultimatum has been given to these persons and the state's police chief said that if these members do not turn up by the end of the day, then attempt to murder charges will be filed against them. In case a death is caused due to this, then murder charges under the Indian Penal Code would be slapped and the Disaster Management Act will also be invoked.

Various reports have said that the Maulana was advised repeatedly not to go ahead with the congregation owing to the pandemic. However he is said to have remained adamant and paid no heed to the advise.

Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal explained how the Tablighi linked cases across the 17 cases had led to a sudden spike in the number of cases. He said that India's coronavirus cases had doubled in 4.1 days due to the Tablighi Jamaat cases. Had it not been for the congregation, India's rate of doubling would have been at 7.4 days, he also said.

While the Maulana did not pay heed to the advise, there was also resistance on part of the Tablighi members to vacate the premises at Nizamuddin. This had promoted the Union Home Ministry to send National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval to convince the Jamaat members to vacate the Banglewali Masjid.

In addition to this, the agencies also had to deal with the fact that many Tablighi members were trying to escape from the country. Several were stopped while trying to leave the country. Most of the persons who tried to leave the country were from Malaysia.
It was also found that several of these persons had taken shelter in the various Mosques in Delhi. The police identified 16 Mosques in which these persons were hiding.