1,500 tabligh participants register with mosque committee
Police urge those with information to contact health ministry to check spread of Covid-19.
PETALING JAYA: About 1,500 participants at the tabligh (missionary) gathering at a mosque at Sri Petaling in Kuala Lumpur have registered with the mosque committee following the confirmation of a Covid-19 case among those present.
Bernama, which reported this today, quoted Bukit Aman Internal Security and Public Order Department director Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani as urging those with information on the participants to contact the health ministry, as this will help efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
Previous reports had put the number of those attending the gathering at Masjid Jamek from Feb 27 to March 1 at 10,000.
The ministry said it was tracing more than 5,000 Malaysians believed to be among them after it was alerted by Brunei that its first case of Covid-19 had attended the gathering.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the 60-year-old Malaysian man – case No. 131 – tested positive for the virus on March 10.
Acryl Sani said the ministry had not contacted police for assistance in tracing the tabligh participants.
He said police could only advise the participants to voluntarily undergo health screening.
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He also said that 61 policemen from the Brickfields and Cheras district police headquarters, who were on duty at the assembly, had been identified and would be undergoing health screening by the ministry.