Jamaat members return home after quarantine at 2 mosques in Hyderabad
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Migrant workers from the state of Madhya Pradesh carrying their belongings wait to board a bus as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation authorities shift them to a temporary shelter during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Hyderabad on April 23, 2020.
"Hyderabad: After spending nearly three weeks in quarantine, 80 members of Tablighi Jamaat have returned home from two mosques in Hyderabad.
Officials said as each one of them tested negative after completing the quarantine period, they were allowed to go home on Wednesday.
While 56 people, including two non-Muslims, were released from Badi Masjid at Mallepally, the regional headquarters of Tablighi Jamaat, 27 others were allowed to return home from Idara-e-Millia Masjid in Malakpet.
All Tablighi Jamaat members, who had attended the congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin in Delhi last month, were in quarantine at mosques which were converted into quarantine centres. "Since we had no symptoms, we were kept in the mosque since April 3," one of the members said after emerging from Badi Masjid.
Police and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) teams had identified the people who had attended the Delhi meet. Those with symptoms were shifted to hospitals and after they tested positive, they were admitted for treatment.
Those who had no symptoms or tested negative were kept at quarantine centres. Jamaat's incharge and some other leaders were also shifted from Badi Masjid to Erragadda Hospital but they had also tested negative.
Interestingly, two non-Muslims from Kamareddy who had travelled with Tablighi Jamaat members in a train were also quarantined at Badi Masjid in Mallepally in the heart of the city. The area was earlier turned into a containment zone with the police cordoning it off.
Though the quarantine period is for 14 days, Jamaat members said they were kept for three weeks. Many of them said they had voluntarily come forward to undergo screening for Covid-19.
Hundreds of Jamaat members have already completed the quarantine period at Charminar Unani Hospital, Sarojini Hospital and other quarantine centres in Hyderabad and various towns in Telangana.
Majority of 943 people who tested positive in the state so far are attendees of Tablighi meet in Delhi. Jamaat members account for most of the 24 fatalities reported so far.
Over 3,000 people who either attended the meet or their relatives and contacts were screened for Covid-19 across the state.