CORONAVIRUS | Some 4,000 attendees at a tabligh gathering in Sri Petaling, which has become the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Malaysia, has yet to come forward, according to Defence Minister Ismail Sabri, who is also a senior coordinating minister.
"I understand there are concerns about the tabligh group as there are still those who cannot be traced, around 4,000 people couldn't be traced.
"The police have made the decision to trace them on their own," he told a press conference which was streamed live on Facebook.
Before this, most contact tracing activities were done by health inspectors.
Ismail Sabri also urged those from the tabligh gathering, which took place from Feb 27 to March 1, to come forward. Some 14,500 Malaysians and 1,500 foreigners attended the event.
He also noted that Malaysians have gone to Indonesia to participate in a separate tabligh gathering, which has since been postponed.
He placed the number of Malaysian attendees at 89, and assured they will be quarantined upon arrival in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said on Facebook 10,650 tabligh participants from the Sri Petaling gathering have been traced.
He also shared statistics which showed 3,072 test results have come back and 513 of these were positive, representing 16.7 percent positive rate.
The statistics also showed that 1,990 more tests are pending.
Not all of the 10,650 were tested as tests are done based on symptoms but even if they are not tested, they are required to be under home surveillance and their condition is constantly monitored by the Health Ministry.
Noor Hisham, too, appealed for the remaining tabligh participants to come forward.
The tabligh gathering is the largest cluster of Covid-19 infections in the country, making up 513 out of the 790 cases. To date, there have also been two deaths.
Globally, 210,796 people have been infected with 8,843 deaths.
- Mkini
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