01 April,2020 08:13 AM IST | New Delhi | Agencies
People who showed Coronavirus symptoms being taken to various hospitals from Nizamuddin area in New Delhi. Pic/PTI
India is likely to blacklist about 300 foreigners who came from 16 countries on tourist visas but attended an Islamic congregation at Nizamuddin here that has become a key source for the spread of Coronavirus in the country, officials said on Tuesday.
These foreigners were among around 8,000 people who attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz facility in March, many of whom have shown symptoms of COVID-19, a Union Home Ministry official said.
About 30 of those who attended the Nizamuddin event in mid-March tested positive and at least three have succumbed to the infection in the last few days. "Those who came on tourist visa but attended the Nizamuddin event stands being in our blacklist as they have violated the visa conditions. Tourist visa holders can't attend religious functions," a Union Home ministry official said.
People pack food to distribute among needy people during a nationwide lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of Coronavirus, in Amritsar, on Tuesday. Pic/PTI
If a foreigner is put in the Home Ministry's blacklist, he or she can't travel to India in future. They include 19 people from Nepal, 20 people from Malaysia, one from Afghanistan, 33 from Myanmar, one from Algeria, one from Djibouti, 28 from Kyrgystan, 72 from Indonesia, 7 from Thailand, 34 from Sri Lanka, 19 from Bangladesh, three from England, one from Singapore, four from Fiji, one from France and one from Kuwait. Most of these foreigners came on a tourist visa, an official said.
Markaz Nizamuddin on Tuesday said it has not violated any provision of the law and offered its premises for setting up a quarantine facility. Markaz Nizamuddin, which is the international headquarters of Tabilghi Jamaat for close to 100 years, will cooperate with the authorities, it said in a statement.
The home quarantined Coronavirus suspects and patients will have to send their selfies on the Quarantine Watch, a mobile app developed by Karnataka government to keep a track of the isolated persons. The government warned the home quarantined people that they will be sent to mass quarantine centres if they violate the rule.
The Centre told the SC that no migrant worker was on the road, amid fears that their movement may trigger the spread of COVID-19. Asserting that such migration cannot be allowed, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao that "there is a possibility of three out of 10 moving from cities to rural areas carrying the virus."
In a digital press conference, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said 1,107 people, who attended the religious congregation in Nizamudddin West, have been quarantined. He said that out of 97 COVID-19 cases in the city, 24 were those who took part in the congregation earlier this month.
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