Coronavirus | Expedite tracing of Tabligh attendees, Centre tells States

Cabinet Secretary holds a videoconference with Chief Secretaries of all the States

People being evacuated from Nizamuddin Centre for Covid 19 testing, around 1000 persons have been taken to different hospitals and govt run quarantine facilities in New Delhi on March 31, 2020.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Wednesday held a videoconference with the Chief Secretaries of all the States a day after the Tablighi Markaz (centre) at Nizamuddin was evacuated and the area put under an intense lockdown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to hold a video call with all the Chief Ministers tomorrow.

A government statement said Mr. Gauba “sensitised” the Chief Secretaries that contact tracing of the Tabligh attendees (spread over multiple States) be undertaken on a war footing and quarantine procedures enforced.

While appreciating that on the whole the lockdown was being implemented well, he said all the benefits announced by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana be disbursed within the week.

Supply chain worries have been top of the mind with the government allowing transport of all goods across various State borders last week. But Mr. Gauba again told the Chief Secretaries that this needed to be smoothened further and that manufacture and supply of goods, especially essential ones, be maintained across the States.

India has entered the second week of a three-week lockdown over the COVID19 pandemic. On Tuesday, the country saw its largest spike in COVID-19 positive cases, more than 200 over 24 hours, as the Tablighi Markaz (centre) case came to light.