The health secretary assured that the samples of all those from Tamil Nadu who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event would be taken and sent to 17 testing labs across the state. “Give us 1-2 days’ time and we will give complete list of their contact and travel history as there were two groups of people who attended – preachers and participants.”



“We have new testing kits. Each lab is working round the clock and does about 100 tests a day. We are doing swab and blood test for everyone who has reported themselves,” she added.

When questioned if there has been a delay in tracing these persons, she said, “There are many questions in tracing them and we are doing that. Our aim is to increase testing facilities, training and get ourselves up to speed on this. We are talking to our officers daily on video call. This is a new virus from China and is now a pandemic.”



She also clarified that the state was still in stage 2 and so it isn't being deemed necessary to test people who don't have contact history or travel history.