The State reported 21 new COVID-19 positive cases from seven districts on Tuesday, taking the tally to 44.
A majority of them are connected to the religious meeting conducted by Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of New Delhi, according to the latest bulletin by the Health Department.
Among the new patients is a 10-year-old boy, the youngest to contract the virus in the State so far, from Lepakshi in Anantapur who is a close contact of Mecca returnee in Karnataka.
Along with the boy, a 34-year-old female in Lepakshi also contracted the virus from a patient who returned from Mecca and is being treated in Karnataka. Another patient is a 65-year-old man from East Godavari who returned from Madina in Saudi Arabia.
In all, 18 patients are connected to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting and 16 of them attended it while two others contracted the virus from those who attended the meeting.
Prakasam leads
Eight of them are from Prakasam district and five are from Guntur district while four are from Visakhapatnam, one is a 65-year-old woman from Vijayawada of Krishna district.
Two of the COVID-19 positive persons who attended the religious meeting from Guntur are also contacts of the first Guntur man who tested positive a few days ago and returned from a meeting at a mosque at Nizamuddin in New Delhi.
Earlier, six people with a connection to New Delhi religious meeting tested positive in Guntur and Prakasam districts. On the whole, 22 of the positive COVID-19 cases are related to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting and 17 cases are related to foreign returnees while one case from Kurnool has a history of travel to Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, the Health Department has asked the district officials to track the persons who had returned from Delhi and their family members and put them under quarantine.
The Wakf Board was roped in to reach out to the returnees and their families. The returnees have been asked to voluntarily approach the authorities by dialling the 104 helpline.
Many of the returnees were identified and surrounding areas were already put on high alert.
Meanwhile, doubts were being raised over deaths of some persons who returned from Delhi recently.
Control room
The government has set up a control room led by the Director of Medical Education under whose control four COVID-19 hospitals, all government hospitals and 435 private hospitals were brought.
In the last 24 hours, 226 samples were tested, taking the total to 881.
With seven cases from the town of Chirala and four cases from other parts, Prakasam district reported 11 cases.
