64 of 87 COVID-19 patients in Andhra Pradesh attended Delhi meeting: Report

With Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin in Delhi emerging as one of India’s biggest ‘hotspots’ of COVID-19, the officials of different states have been put on high alert. The past few days have witnessed an increasing number of cases share a link to the event, thereby prompting the authorities to identify the participants of this congregation. Andhra Pradesh too has reported a sharp spike in the number of coronavirus cases with several attendees of the event testing positive of-late. As per the data revealed by the Health, Medical & Family Welfare Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, as many as 64 of the 87 COVID-19 patients in the state have been identified as attendees of this religious meeting in Delhi.

The department further revealed that so far, a total of 1313 samples have been collected across the state. While 218 samples belong to foreign returnees, 543 are of those who attended the religious congregation in Delhi. 409 samples have been collected from the contacts of the suspects while 143 samples belong to symptomatic individuals. Looking at the district-wise breakup, 195 samples have been collected from Visakhapatnam, with 24 of them belonging to those who attended the Delhi meeting.

Andhra Pradesh witnessed its sharpest spike in the number of cases on Wednesday with as many as 43 patients testing positive for COVID-19 in a single night. The districts of Kadapa and West Godavari, which witnessed no cases of coronavirus until Tuesday, saw a sudden increase with 15 cases and 13 cases coming to the light respectively. Chittoor recorded 5 new cases while Prakasam, which witnessed 11 cases on Tuesday, reported 5 new cases in the latest set. While East Godavari and Nellore reported two cases each, the count in Visakhapatnam went up by one.