An Islamic congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin West and attended by thousands of followers of the sect from abroad and India has emerged as key hotspot responsible for the spread of novel coronavirus in the country

.At least nine person who attended the congregation – six in Telengana and one each in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and J&K – have died of the Covid-19 disease.

Health authorities now suspect that the Aalami Mashwara, an Islamic event staged by Tablighi Jamaat, could have been the focal point for the pandemic to spread to other parts of the country. Participants at the congregation came in contact with Malaysian and Indonesian preachers.

Aalami Mashwara event is likely to have seen participants who attended Tablighi Jamaat global gathering — Ijtima Asia — at Seri Petaling mosque, Selangor in Malaysia that has turned into a hotspot for the spread of the pandemic virus in South-East Asia.

1,500 members of the group are still inside the mosque of which nearly 300 were found to have been suffering fever, cough and breathing difficulty. Many of them have been rushed to various public hospitals in Delhi for isolation even as the area has been put under a complete lockdown with police, health and municipal authorities trying to detect and limit the spread.

18 out of 25 new cases of Covid-19 in Delhi is said to be linked to the Nizamuddin mosque.

Last night, Telangana government announced that six people who had attended the Islamic congregation in Delhi have died in the state till now. This number includes the five who have died in the state on Monday (30 March).

On 28 March, a 74-year-old person in the Khairtabad locality in Hyderabad, who attended the conference, had died after taking treatment for his symptoms as an outpatient

On Monday, two Coronavirus patients taking treatment at the government-run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad died. Another person, who had tested positive for Covid-19, died at the city’s Apollo Hospital. Two other deaths were reported from Nizamabad and Gadwal.

The Telangana government had raised an alarm with the Centre after it was suspected that the Aalami Mashwara congregation at the Banglewali Markaz in Nizamuddin in New Delhi had become a focal point for the spread of the pandemic to other parts of the country.

Tamil Nadu government has raised an alarm over the Nizamuddin congregation after a high percentage of those who were screened tested positive for the pandemic virus. Of the 17 samples tested, 16 were positive with 14 of them from Erode district.