A state minister and his family members were quarantined on Wednesday after it was found that his son had attended the religious event in Delhi, a Malaysian participant of which tested positive for the novel coronavirus here on Tuesday.

The name of the minister’s son was on the list of 37 persons — who had participated in the three-day religious meeting held at Nizamuddin in Delhi in mid-March — that the special branch of the state police sent to all 24 districts.

“We have put the minister and his family members in quarantine after coming to know that his son had visited Delhi,”a Deoghar district administration official said, requesting anonymity. “Though the son denied his Delhi visit, his name figured on the list. So for safety reasons they were quarantined. Their samples have been taken for test. So far they have not exhibited symptoms of Covid-19.”

The special branch, while sending the list, had directed all district deputy commissioners (DCs), senior superintendents of police (SSPs), deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) and railway SPs to ensure the 37 persons underwent medical check-up and testing for novel coronavirus.

“We have asked all district administrations to take up the matter on priority basis. So far the intelligence inputs have confirmed about 36 persons who had attended the programme,” said Ajay Kumar Singh, additional director-general of police, special branch.

“It is necessary in the interest of public health since a number of participants of the event were detected with coronavirus. It is necessary to trace and isolate them to stop further spread of the virus. All of them have returned Jharkhand during the last one week,” he added.

The participants of the meeting were from Dhanbad, Ranchi, Chatra, Deoghar, East Singhbhum, Bokaro, Dumka, Garhwa, Giridih, Godda, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Jamtara, Khunti, Koderma, Latehar, Lohardaga, Pakur, Palamau, Ramgarh, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Simdega and West Singhbhum.

“Out of the 37 on the list, 11 are associated with some other organisations as well and they can easily be traced. We are trying to identify by their village,” said a senior police officer who requested anonymity. “We are again asking people to inform us if any stranger is staying at their locality.”

State police spokesperson and ADG (operations) M.L.Meena said the list of 37 persons had their addresses and contact numbers.

“The objective is to facilitate the respective district surveillance unit in identifying and isolating all those persons and getting them quarantined to stem the spread of Covid-19,” Meena said.

The Dhanbad administration and police since Tuesday night evacuated 26 persons, most of whom are from Uttar Pradesh, from two religious places. The health department also sent 12 religious preachers, including 10 Indonesian nationals and two Maharastra residents, who had undergone 14 days under quarantine to 14 more days of quarantine at the Sadar Hospital of PMCH after collecting and sending their samples to RIMS Ranchi.

State health principal secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said 2,450 quarantine centres had bee set up across Jharkhand “with a capacity of nearly 18,000 beds”.

As on Tuesday, 97,913 people were under home quarantine while 5,318 were at the state quarantine centres.