After two Thai nationals tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday(March 21) at the IRT hospital in Perundurai, the district administration and the corporation sealed off nine streets visited by them and launched sanitisation measures to contain the spread of virus. The streets have been completely cordoned off and public is not being permitted to venture in to the restricted area.

Erode Municipal Corporation commissioner M Elangovan informed that few mosques and other commercial establishments in the nine streets will remain closed until further orders.

Thai nationals, all Islamic preachers belonging to the Tabligh Jamaat, were part of a group of seven which had come to Tamil Nadu’s Erode district to teach at two mosques. The mosques are Sultanpet Markaz Masjid and Kollampalayam Masjid-E-Thaqva.

One of the seven, a 49-year-old person in the group, died last week at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. He showed symptoms of Coronavirus but doctors said his death was due to complications such as diabetic nephropathy, sepsis and pulmonary oedema.

The Thai Tabligh group had landed at Delhi on 6 March and reached Erode by the Millennium Express on 10 March. They spent time at least three mosques, including Kollampalayam and Sultanpet, until 15 March.

The remaining six of the group were later to shifted to IRT Perundurai Medical College near Erode. They were screened for Coronavirus on 17 March and on Saturday, the tests reported positive for Covid-19.

Erode district administration, under the direction from the state health secretary Beela Rajesh, also home quarantined 136 people in the area and started affixing stamps before their houses from Monday morning.

The nine streets were identified New Masjid Street, Kongalamman Koil Street, East Kongalamman Koil Street, Sultanpet, West Kongalamman Koil Street, Kandasamy Street, Kandasamy Lane, Ottukara Chinnaiah Street and Hasan Street.

In view of the positive Covid-19 cases, the mosques were asked to shut, while the Tamil Nadu Health Department has approached the Railways seeking information on passengers who travelled in the coach of the Thai nationals.

Tamil Nadu is the second state where Islamic preachers, who have come from South-East Asia, have tested positive for Covid-19. Last week, nine Indonesian Islamic preachers of Tabligh Jamaat tested positive for the pandemic virus in Telangana.

The Indonesian preachers, too, travelled by train from Bhopal after landing in Delhi on 9 March.

A congregation of the Tabligh Jamaat in Malaysia has turned hotspot for Coronavirus in South-East Asia, with two-thirds of the positive cases from the mosque where the meeting was held.