MALAYSIAMoH Didn’t Know About Sri Petaling Gathering Until Informed By Brunei, Says Director-General

For Malaysians, the Sri Petaling Mosque tabligh gathering has been a topic of conversation since the Covid-19 outbreak began in the country. The event attracted over 16,000 attendees, 14,500 of which are Malaysians, and has been put under the national spotlight as cases of Covid-19 continue to be reported from the congregation. But according to Malay Mail, this massive gathering went unnoticed by authorities until later on.

This fact was revealed by director-general of the Ministry of Health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah during a press conference yesterday (22nd March 2020). During the conference, the director-general said that the Ministry only caught wind of the tabligh gathering on 9th March 2020, despite the gathering having ended on 1st March 2020.

“We were informed on 9th March that a tabligh congregation member was involved in the gathering, and who had attended the mosque, from my comrade in Brunei. We didn’t even know there was a tabligh congregation involving 16,000 people.

“When one was tested positive, we immediately conducted contact tracing on the tabligh gathering participants,” he said.

He adds that 11,000 from the 14,500 local attendees have been traced, and 6,700 people have undergone sampling. According to Datuk Dr Noor Hisham, there have been no reports of cases from other social gatherings.

In the meantime, we hope that all Malaysians obey the Movement Control Order and stay indoors as much as possible to prevent the further spreading and infection of Covid-19. Stay safe everyone!