Covid-19: 14,500 Malaysians attended Sri Petaling mosque programme, not 5,000

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has revised its earlier count of Malaysians attending a tabligh (missionary) convention at Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling recently to 14,500, from the initial 5,000.

The Ministry said that the ijtima tabligh event from Feb 27 to March 1 was attended by some 16,000 people, of whom 14,500 were Malaysians, and the remaining 1,500 were foreigners.

This was revealed in an infographic uploaded by Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) on his Facebook page on Friday morning (March 13).

“Our teams are onsite working round the clock conducting mass screening for Covid-19 at Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling since the last few days.

“We have full cooperation from all parties, namely the participants, staff and students.

“Our health officers from Lembah Pantai are supported by staff deployed from other states to trace and track all the participants.

“It’s indeed a mammoth and daunting task, but we need to prepare to share the responsibility as everyone can help to protect themselves and their communities, ” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Earlier this week, Dr Noor Hisham said the estimated number of programme attendees were around 10,000 people, of whom half were Malaysians.

A 53-year-old man from Brunei, who attended the programme, was found to be infected with Covid-19.

There has been cases in Negeri Sembilan, Johor, Pahang and Sabah linked to the participants in the programme.

Brunei health authorities said they were also investigating the current health status of other Bruneians who journeyed with the man during this time.