Areas in Delhi visited by Jamaat attendees to be sealed

New Delhi : Mobile phone numbers of around 2000 Tablighi Jamaat attendees have been shared with the police officials, the movement of the numbers will be traced down and then the areas where they had visited will be sealed in the national capital, said CM Arvind Kejriwal.

Kejriwal said, "Now, monitoring has to be stepped up at the hot spots. For instance, the Markaz in Nizamuddin (the venue of the Tablighi Jamaat congregations). We have provided around 2,000 phone numbers of individuals who participated in the Jamaat. We have to know areas they visited during their stay in the building and the people they came in contact with. All such areas will be sealed."

So far, the national capital has found two major hotspots – Nizamuddin and Dilshad Garden – as the prime hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus. A slum in south Moti Bagh has also been cordoned off and subjected to the protocols of a containment zone, but it is officially yet to be notified as one.

In the containment zones, there is strict surveillance to ensure residents do not step out of their houses, regular spraying of disinfectants, door-to-door visits by health workers to check for flu-like symptoms and provision of essentials (with all business establishments shut) by government workers. All roads to the containment zones are cordoned off by the police.

"For tracking, we have started taking the help of the police. So far, we have provided them with 27,702 phone numbers to check possible violation of quarantine norms," said Kejriwal.

Hindustan Times quoted an official saying that they are working with the Delhi government and central intelligence agencies with regards to mobile phone records and travel history of the quarantined persons.

"The Delhi government has been regularly giving us the contact details of home-quarantined persons. Based on that, we are checking for the violation of the home quarantine regulations. Separately, we also have our own database of those who were evacuated from the Markaz. Using that, we are checking for people they were in contact with during their stay in Delhi. We have got the records from the register of the Markaz. At the Central government level, the agencies are helping with contact details of Tablighi Jamaat participants from other states, who were in Delhi last month but left before the evacuation started," the officer said.