Tablighi Jamaat: Avoid Religious Profiling Of COVID-19 Cases, Says WHO

by GoNews Desk 3 years ago Views 6436

Tablighi Jamaat: Avoid Religious Profiling Of COVI
The World Health Organisation has asked countries to refrain from religious, racial and ethical profiling of coronavirus cases, pointing to media coverage of Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Delhi’s Markaz Nizamuddin in mid-march.

At a press briefing on COVID-19, WHO Emergency Programme Director Mike Ryan was answering a reporter’s question.


Question: "We have recently seen a spike in cases caused through religious gatherings in India, in fact almost a third of new cases were linked to one gathering in India. We have also seen incidents of violence against health workers due to fear and misinformation. Is WHO concerned with these developments, what is WHO's message to religious and community leaders and their followers?"

To which Ryan said: “First and foremost the idea of violence against health workers is driven by fear and it's driven by misunderstandings but it's really unacceptable. We ask everyone and every community to see our health workers as our heroes and to support them in every way we can.”

He continued to say that “with regard to gatherings of any type, be they religious or be they for other purposes, there are always risks associated with such gatherings in the midst of a major epidemic. WHO has issued guidance on that. Many of these gatherings are now postponed or cancelled.”


“But it's very important again. Having COVID-19 is not anybody’s fault. Every case is a victim and every case needs to be treated with sensitivity as the health workers would treat them. So it is very important that we’re not profiling COVID-19 along racial, religious and ethnic lines. This is not helpful.” Ryan said.


In the wake of a rash of COVID-19 infections, the Central Government sought to make a case that the outbreak in the country would have spread slower had the Nizamuddin congregation not happened.

"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,” Union health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal had said.

Since then, several health officials, home ministers and mainstream media have been naming the congregation for the spread of the virus in their statements.

Watch- Mike Ryan's comments on COVID-19 religious profiling:

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