429 Tablighi Jamaat members in Pakistan test positive for Covid-19

The chief minister of Pakistan’s Sindh state said the Tablighi Jamaat members who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been kept in isolation to control the spread of the virus.

A total of 429 members of a Tablighi Jamaat group have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

A policeman wearing a facemask stands at the Tablighi Markaz checkpoint during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Lahore on April 5, 2020. (AFP)

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said 429 members of the religious group had attended the annual congregation in Raiwand in Punjab province and all of them have tested positive so far.

He said the members who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been kept in isolation to control the spread of the virus.

“Out of some 4,692 Tablighi Jamaat members in the province, tests have been carried out on some 4,653 so far,” he said.

The tally of the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country climbed on Friday to 7,260 with 137 deaths. In Punjab the number of such cases is 3,300.

Tablighi Jamaat members have emerged as the prime suspects among potential coronavirus carriers, not just in Pakistan but in India, Malaysia and Brunei.