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Updated: Apr 01, 2020 22:13 IST

A day after Assam recorded its first coronavirus case, 12 more people tested positive in the state on Wednesday taking the total number of patients in the state to 13.

Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted about eight of the latest cases in the evening.

Alert ~ 8 more #COVID19 positive cases in Assam, taking the total to 13.



All eight new cases are of people who also participated in #TablighiJamaat congregation at #NizamuddinMarkaz.



Update at 9 pm / April 1 — Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) April 1, 2020

All of them had taken part in the congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi last month. While four test results were announced in the afternoon, 8 more tested positive on Wednesday evening

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“We received a list of 456 people present in and around the location during the congregation organised by Tablighi Jamat. Names of another 91 people were collected from information gathered locally —taking the total to 547,” Sarma had said earlier in the day at a press conference.

“Out of that, 134 were in that area but had not attended the congregation, and another 68 had attended it but are yet to return to Assam. So our target was to locate 347 who had returned to Assam,” he added.

Also read: Karnataka now says 1500 from the state were at Nizamuddin gathering, only 800 traced

Since Tuesday, 230 of them have been identified and located—samples have been collected from 196 of them and sent for tests. There is no trace yet to 117 and efforts are on the locate them.

“We have got reports that four other persons from Assam, who are among the 68 attendees of the congregation yet to return to the state, have been found positive in Delhi,” he added.

Sarma appealed to the 117 others who are yet to be traced to voluntarily contact healthcare authorities or call the 104 helpline number and inform about their status and location.

“We have entered a critical stage as most of the 347 people who came to the state from the Tablighi Jamaat gathering last month didn’t spend time in quarantine and there is no idea how many people they came in contact with after returning,” he said.

The first positive case from Assam, a 52-year old from Karimganj who is a patient of cancer and diabetes, had attended the Tablighi Jamaat gathering. He is at present admitted at Silchar Medical College Hospital.

After attending the congregation he had returned by train to Guwahati earlier last month where he spent a night before going back home in another train. All those people who have come in contact with him have been quarantined and samples collected from five of them for testing.