The joint teams of health workers, civil servants and police have located over 800 foreign Tablighi Jamaat members, against the initially estimated 187 foreigners, staying in the various mosques of Delhi, reports Hindustan Times.

The search began after Delhi police sent an urgent message to the Delhi government on 31 March. Following this, a joint team of Delhi police, health workers and other government servants of the Delhi administration started a search for remaining Jamaat workers in various mosques of the city.

In four days, the teams widened the net to cover a large number of mosques and have located over 800 foreigners linked to the Jamaat in the national capital.

The authorities fear that many of these would also turn out to be positive cases of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), and could have already infected many others.

The officials estimate that by the time searches end, they could find many more such persons.

The Jamaat workers have meanwhile been placed in various government-run quarantine facilities across Delhi. However, the ones who were found to be hiding in different mosques are yet to be tested and the process for the same is expected to begin tomorrow (5 April).

Meanwhile, it should be noted that the Tablighi Jamaat is a religious sect headquartered in Delhi's Nizamuddin area. The congregation of the sect which was held between 15-18 March has been found to be linked to a major chunk of total positive cases of COVID-19 discovered across the nation.