District Superintendent of Police A.V. Ranganath announced on Friday that 12 Vietnamese, including two children, and two other accompanying guides, who toured the town for the last 10 days, were shifted to Fever Hospital in Hyderabad.
The operation was carried out around midnight on Thursday after police came to know about their stay in Nalgonda. A preliminary test was conducted on them, with the help of medical and revenue officials, and all 14 were shifted to Hyderabad.
“Though nobody in the group showed any symptoms of COVID-19, they were shifted as they are foreign nationals, as a precautionary measure,” Mr. Ranganath said.
The 12 Vietnamese landed in Delhi on March 4, and reached Hyderabad by train on March 9. They went to Nalgonda on the same day in a hired vehicle, along with the two guides, police said.
According to the Masjid-e-Mahbas, where all of them stayed, the Vietnamese looked healthy.
“They are Islamic preachers allotted here by the Nizamuddin Markas Masjid of Delhi. Such preachers visit here once in six months and stay in mosques,” a member said.
It was also learnt that the preachers visited a few other mosques in the old town.
On Friday, as the news spread with the arrival of electronic media outside the mosque near the District Prison here, Mr. Ranganath was forced to clear the air.
Meanwhile, police and committee members locked the mosque and sterilised the area. Small shops were shut and door-to-door inquiries made in the neighbourhood.
