Delhi Fire officers disinfect an area at Nizamuddin, from where several people who attended an Islamic congregation earlier this month were tested positive for Covid-19, in New Delhi, India, Thursday, April 2, 2020. Police in New Delhi have filed a criminal case against clerics of an Islamic religious sect for organizing a gathering last month in violation of COVID-19 safety measures such as social distancing. Police said Wednesday they will question Maulana Saad and others of Tablighi Jamaat who have also been booked under India’s Epidemic Disease Act that restricts religious gatherings. They could be punished with six months in prison. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Uttar Pradesh's Banda district reported its first coronavirus case after a 40-year-old man, who had returned from a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, tested positive, officials said on Saturday. Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Santosh Kumar said the test report came positive on Friday evening.
"The 40-year-old resident of Banda city had gone to attend the Tablighi Jamaat congregation (in Delhi). He returned to Banda on March 11,” the CMO said. He was moved in the isolation ward of a hospital on April 1, and his sample was sent to the King George's Medical University, Lucknow, for testing, the CMO said.
“Late on Friday, his sample was found to be corona positive. He has been shifted from the isolation ward to a special ward,” the CMO said. He said this is the first COVID-19 positive case reported from the district.
All who came in contact with the person are also being examined, he said.
