'Mammoth task': Malaysia conducts mass COVID-19 screenings for participants of KL mosque gathering
14 March, 2020
Malaysia’s health officials have been working at any hour to conduct mass COVID-19 screenings at Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling, as medical ministry confirmed on Friday (Mar 13) a tabligh (religious) rally held at the venue was earlier attended by about 16,000 people.
Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry’s team received full cooperation from the participants, staff and students at the mosque.
“Our health and wellness officers from Lembah Pantai are supported by staff deployed from other states to trace and track all participants.
“It’s indeed a mammoth and intimidating task. However, we need to prepare to share the duty as everyone can help protect themselves and their communities,” he said in a Facebook post.
In another post, Dr Noor Hisham shared a chart that explained that about 14,500 out of some 16,000 participants were Malaysians.
The mass religious event has sparked fear of new cluster transmission following report of Brunei’s first COVID-19 patient, who was simply a participant at the mosque gathering, and the positive diagnosis of six Malaysian cases linked to the event.
The six comes from Negri Sembilan, Johor, Pahang and Sabah, while on Friday, Sarawak reported its first three COVID-19 cases traced to the same event.
Health Minister Adham Baba had said on Thursday that the mosque will be temporarily closed for disinfection.
He also urged those that attended the function to get tested immediately if indeed they begin to experience symptoms of COVID-19.
Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, the minister in-charge of religious affairs, needed Friday prayers to be on as usual with some adjustments set up, such as for example shortening the sermon and encouraging Muslims to create ablutions at home.
However, previously Friday, there were questions on if the prayers will be called off, after Perlis Islamic authorities directed Muslims in the state not to perform Friday prayers at mosques.
Dr Zulkifli issued a statement later to state that Friday prayers at federal territories would be held for the day.
Separately, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department decided to impose a short-term ban on tabligh events in all mosques and surau in the state.
Malaysia has a total of 158 cases by Thursday.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, two of the 82 Singaporeans who've attended the tabligh event tested positive, prompting the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore to close all mosques for at least five days.
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