Lahore: Pakistan has quarantined 20,000 worshippers and is still searching for tens of thousands more who attended an Islamic gathering in Lahore last month despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic, officials said. Authorities said they want to test or quarantine those who congregated at the event held by the Tablighi Jamaat between March 10-12 over fears they are now spreading Covid-19 across Pakistan and overseas.
More than 100,000 people went to the meeting, organisers said, undeterred by government requests for it to be cancelled as the virus hit the country. In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities have so far quarantined 5,300 Tablighis preachers who attended the Lahore meeting.
"Health officials are conducting tests for coronavirus and some of them have tested positive," Ajmal Wazir, a spokesperson for the region, said. Wazir said thousands of Tablighis from his province were stranded in other regions because of the closure of major highways across the country.
About 7,000 have been quarantined in the central Punjab city Lahore, while in southern Sindh province up to 8,000 Tablighis have been quarantined, government officials said. Dozens more have been forced to self-isolate in southwestern Balochistan province. The Tablighi mosques and the movement's other places of worship were shut down or marked as quarantine centres at the end of March.
At least 154 worshippers who went to the Jamaat had tested positive for coronavirus, with two fatalities, authorities said. Coronavirus has killed at least 45 people in Pakistan but with only limited testing available, observers worry the number is far higher. Numerous foreign nationals attended this year from countries including China, Indonesia, Nigeria and Afghanistan, organisers said. About 1,500 foreigners are now quarantined in Pakistan, but others left the country without being tested.
