KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad has dismissed the possibility that those who attended the Sri Petaling tabligh event were slow to get tested for Covid-19 since they did not trust authorities.
The former health minister said many of those who attended did not do so immediately because to them they did not show any symptoms.
“Some of them are walking around without any symptoms of cough or shortness of breath and so on so they think they are not infected.
“However, they could be asymptomatic,” said Dzulkelfy during an interview on Astro Awani tonight.
“Many of them aren’t well informed or aware of how dangerous the situation is. You maybe asymptomatic hence you won’t realise you are infected carriers of Covid-19. But truth is they are walking around as carriers.
“So they need to know that just because they aren’t down with a severe fever doesn’t mean you’re in the clear,” he added.
Last week, the Health Ministry said it was still looking for 5,084 members of the tabligh group who were involved in the mass gathering at Jamek Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur from February 27 to March 1.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the government has so far tested 17,584 members of the group, including their relatives, and found that 1,207 tested positive, with another 4,465 pending results.
“What’s more worrying is we see confirmed cases non-related to the existing clusters. These are sporadic cases coming from the community transmitting within the community
“This is telling us the virus is around and we need to intensify our testing,” Dzulkefly said.
