The 10 Indonesians, who arrived in Karimnagar on March 14 from the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) meeting in New Delhi, have freshly tested negative for COVID-19, bringing huge relief to officials of Karimnagar district.
Four residents of Karimnagar, including two women, all of whom are believed to have contracted COVID-19 through these foreigners, however, are still undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad. Three men out of the 18 others from Karimnagar, who also attended the TJ meeting, contracted the novel coronavirus and are undergoing treatment at that hospital.
Cases registered
“While 10 Indonesians were discharged and kept under quarantine for observation, the condition of the remaining is also being closely monitored,” Karimnagar Police Commissioner V.B. Kamalasan Reddy told The Hindu on Wednesday. Cases have already been registered against the foreigners by police in Karimnagar and Ramagundam for alleged visa rule violations and spreading an infectious disease.
The ‘recovery reports’ of the Indonesians and dip in further cases made the ‘Karimnagar model’ of controlling the pandemic a success story. Initially, the official machinery was on its toes following reports of ‘foreigners’ (participants of TJ meeting in Delhi) moving about in Karimnagar and spreading COVID-19.
On learning that these foreigners were accommodated in a local Ahamadiya mosque near the district collectorate, police closed all lanes and by-lanes within a kilometre radius of the area. No stranger was allowed to enter the hotspot and none was allowed to go out either.
“Although it caused inconvenience to people, it was done to check further transmission of virus to others,” Karimnagar Assistant Commissioner of Police Ashok said.
On the other hand, extensive door-to-door heath checks were conducted by multiple teams of Health department. All vulnerable persons were shifted to isolation wards. Fortunately, the foreigners did not move extensively in Karimnagar.
Police collected details of their movement since they landed at Ramagundam railway station at 5.52 a.m. on March 14 by Sampark Kranthi Express.
From there, the foreigners went to Musalaya mosque in Ramagundam. After offering prayers there, they left for Karimnagar by 7 a.m. in a car and an auto-rickshaw with two residents of Karimnagar. The duo and two female members of their family also contracted the virus.
After reaching Karimnagar, they had breakfast at a roadside eatery. Gathering such minute details, police began identifying primary and secondary contacts of the foreigners and local residents who assisted them. Simultaneously, precise details of the 18 persons from Karimnagar who participated in TJ Delhi meeting were also identified. Their close and casual contacts were traced too.
Three of them tested positive for the virus. One of them, unaware of contracting the virus, went to Warangal and even attended a marriage function in Suryapet, having travelled in a bus. “Field inquiries by our Special Branch policemen alerted us about the movement of foreigners a day after their arrival. Without losing a minute, we did everything to contain the virus and it is yielding positive results,” Mr. Kamalasan Reddy said.
