CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19-positive cases soared to 234, with 190 among them being Muslim pilgrims who attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi recently.On Wednesday alone, 110 from the TJ cluster tested positive. The massive exercise to draw out the hundreds of TJ delegates yielded results with 1,103 of them coming forward for screening across the state. On Tuesday, the state government had appealed to the 300 "untraceable" Muslim attendees to come forward. At least 1,500 from TN had participated in the three-day conference at the TJ markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin West from March 21The 190 who tested positive include foreign missionaries who transited through the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters, said TN health secretary Beela Rajesh. "Many people came to the health facility as soon as we made an appeal on Tuesday. So far, 1,103 of 1,131 people have come for testing. They are in hospital isolation wards (across the state) and are being tested," she said.Since Tuesday evening, 588 people had volunteered for testing, the health secretary said. "We have got more than what we thought. We have been trying to reach out to more people through religious leaders, police, revenue and district health authorities," she said.Samples have been drawn from 658 people from the cluster so far, she said. The 110 people are from 15 districts in the state. The state is making special containment zones around the houses of people who tested positive from this group. Containment and buffer zones are being drawn up. These areas have been cordoned off, preventing entry and exit. "If close contacts or those in the containment zone are affected, they should approach the health department," said the officer. The state police had constituted 50 special teams to trace all the Muslim delegates, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.The first case in the cluster tested positive on March 21 when the two Thai nationals were brought to IRT in Perundurai with symptoms of a cough and cold. "We have been screening people at domestic airports and railway stations since then," said Beela, denying any delay. "It is not something that happened in one day. They met at the conference in Delhi and they have been moving around in the state," she said.At least 400 Muslims who attended the conference are still in Delhi. "Many of them were tested there. There are positive cases," she said. Earlier in the day, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami issued an appeal urging the Muslim pilgrims to submit themselves for screening."There was reluctance, and even apprehension, among the Muslim participants, considering the attacks on us on social media," Hafiz Mohammed Noorulah , imam of the Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar masjid near Perambur, told TOI on his way to the Omandurar multi-specialty hospital in Chennai. He was among the 70-odd Chennai participants in the TJ conference. At least 15 of them remained in Delhi.The delegates who returned were screened over the last few days and many have been admitted to government hospitals across Chennai for testing. In Delhi, authorities set about fumigating the Banglewali masjid in Nizamuddin in Delhi where the conference was held.