Coronavirus: 400 Tablighi Jamaat positives take India's total over 2,500; PM Modi to address nation at 9 am

A Union health ministry official said that 400 people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz event in south Delhi's Nizammudin area last month have tested positive for the deadly novel coronavirus. In the total tally, about 400 Covid-19 positive cases have been found whose epidemiological linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster, said the Union Health Ministry, which asserted there was no evidence to widespread community transmission and 20 existing and 22 potential hotspots have been identified across the country. A Home Ministry official said while 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat members and their primary contacts have been quarantined till now across the country due to "massive efforts" to check the outbreak, the Centre has written to all states and union territories that "the lockdown measures should be implemented in letter and spirit". Two women doctors were injured in Indore when a 5-member team of health officials was pelted with stones in Taatpatti Bakhal area on Wednesday while they were trying to trace a person who had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient, police said. Telangana Director General of Police M Mahendar Reddy asserted that strong action will be taken against the culprits and necessary measures will be put in place to provide protection to all the doctors and paramedics treating COVID-19 patients. Stones were thrown at the quick response team (QRT), comprising policemen and an ambulance carrying medical personnel, when they visited the Hazratganj locality late on Wednesday, said the SHO of Qasim Bazar police station Shailesh Kumar. Female social workers in Bengaluru and a man in Mumbai were gheraoed and assaulted in separate incidents linked to the survey of people who attended the recent Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, the biggest COVID-19 hotspot in India, said police officials from the two cities. In Bengaluru, community health workers engaged in conducting coronavirus survey in certain minority-dominated areas were allegedly manhandled on Thursday, prompting the Karnataka government to issue a stern warning to the offenders. In an earlier incident in Bihar, four policemen were injured when a group of people owing allegiance to Tablighi Jamaat assembled in a village in Madhubhani district allegedly attacked them as the men in uniform admonished them for defying the ongoing lockdown, a senior official said. India's total tally of Covid-19 cases cross 2,500 mark on PM Modi will share to short message to nation at 9 am He is likely to urge people to follow lockdown rules for the remaining days