UP: 3 Tablighi Jamaat members test positive for novel coronavirus in Pratapgarh

PRAYAGRAJ: Adding Pratapgarh to the list of novel coronavirus-hit districts in Uttar Pradesh, three men who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi in March tested positive for Covid-19 in Pratapgarh on Friday.
SP (Paragraph) Abhishek Singh said, "The three were among a group of 11 delegates who had arrived in Pratapgarh on March 18 after attending the Tablighi congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin West area."
"After reaching Pratapgarh via train, they stayed in two different mosques in Narsinghgarh and Raniganj," he added.
Chief medical officer (Pratapgarh) Dr AK Srivastava said, "The three Jamaat members are aged 35, 23 and 38. They are residents of Uttarakhand."
After the Pratapgarh police got to know about their presence in the district on March 31, they initially took the group of 11 to a primary health centre and later shifted them to the district hospital. They were later quarantined at the hospital.
On April 2, health department officials collected the swab samples of all 11 Jamaat members and sent it to King George’s Medical University in Lucknow for testing.
"Of the 11, three members tested positive for novel coronavirus," the SP added.
Meanwhile, Prayagraj health department officials are still waiting for reports of four Jamaat members, who were found hiding in a local mosque on Tuesday. The department had sent 11 samples to KGMU for testing. While seven had tested negative for Covid-19, the test results of the remaining four were still awaited till this story went to press.