Please Save Us, Don't Want To Die: Tablighi Jamaat Members Break Down At Kanpur Corona Camp

Amid reports of alleged unruly behaviour by the members of Tablighi Jamaat at various corona quarantine centres across India, the Kanpur camp in Uttar Pradesh speaks a different story. The Nizamuddin Markaz attendees, who were kept at a hospital in Kanpur, are now begging for treatment and want to go home. Just days after reports said that some Jamaatis had abused and heckled the health workers, New Nation has learnt that the Tabilighi members have now completely changed their tone and behaviour. A health worker at the Kanpur hospital said that the Jamaatis broke down in front of them and begged for treatment. (Coronavirus Outbreak Live Updates)

The Markaz attendees said that they are missing their families and would do anything to get rid of COVID-19 infection. These Tablighi Jamaat members are being treated at the special corona ward at the Lala Lajpat Rai (Hallett) Hospital in Kanpur. The Jamaatis requested the paramedical staff to help them. "Please save us, we don't want to die," the Jamaatis told the paramedical staff. Witnessing the changed behaviour, the paramedical staff also consoled the Jamaatis and told them that they should follow the protocol. "Follow doctor's advice and take your medicines on time," the staff told the Tablighi members. Now, they are filling the fever chart themselves. "We want you to defeat this disease," the paramedical staff told the patients. Kanpur Medical College Principal Aarti Lal Chandani said that the Jamaatis have realised their mistakes.

India has been seeing a sharp rise in the number of positive coronavirus cases in the last few days. Since last week of March, every day has seen record number of COVID-19 cases being reported. One of the major factors in the steep rise is the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in west Nizamuddin area of Delhi. The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days presently but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days, the Health Ministry said recently. Which means that the rate of doubling has almost doubled due to the Nizamuddin Markaz event. Talking about the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal had said, "If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days." Around 30 per cent of the total corona cases are linked to Nizamuddin Markaz. Meanwhile, an ICMR official asserted that there was no evidence that COVID-19 was airborne.