Police have tracked the identity and contacts of all 1,167 persons who attended a gathering at the Alami Markaz Banglewadi Masjid, the headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of Delhi during March, Director-General of Police Gautam Sawang said here on Wednesday.
“We have accounted for everyone and only 132 persons are now out of the State and some are in Delhi. The AP Police is playing a major role in the identification of their primary and secondary contacts of those who tested positive for COVID-19 and in cluster containment of the zones, where persons have tested positive. So far, we have identified 146 red zones in the State and this number might change later,’’ the DGP told reporters here.
Mr. Sawang along with Guntur range IG J. Prabhakara Rao, Collector I. Samuel Ananda Kumar and DIG PHD Ramakrishna visited the areas declared as red zones in the city.
‘Delicate situation’
While stating that AP is among the States which has managed the global pandemic well, the DGP admitted that there were still uncertainties like asymptomatic nature of the disease.
“We will however, win the war against this global scourge with the combined effort of the government and the general public, who have showed great restraint and compliance during the lockdown period,’’ said the DGP.
While explaining the way the police were able to successfully track the affected persons and their families, Mr. Sawang said initially, the focus was on foreign returnees. The data from the Bureau of Immigration revealed that 21,000 persons returned from various countries during March, but later, it emerged that only 11 tested positive.
He said it took time to collect information regarding the number of people from the State that attended the Delhi meeting. Since there were many other attendees from other Asian countries, the virus spread had been swift, the DGP pointed out.
Calibrated exit
Hinting that the State government could go in for a calibrated exit from the lockdown, the DGP said he was not in favour of resuming public transport any time soon.
Police would clamp down on any one posting messages on social media misleading people over possible cures for the disease and added that 47 cases had been booked so far.
Additional DGP Tripathi, SP, Guntur Rural, Ch. Vijaya Rao, Joint Collector AS Dinesh Kumar and Municipal Commissioner C. Anuradha were present.
