Three Bangladeshi Tablighi Jamaat members test positive for COVID-19 in Palembang

Yulia Savitri
The Jakarta Post

Palembang, South Sumatra / Mon, May 4, 2020 / 07:05 pm

Three Bangladeshi Tablighi Jamaat members test positive for COVID-19 in Palembang

A medical worker conducts a COVID-19 rapid test on a member of Tablighi Jamaat in Mojotengah, Central Java on April 20. Three out of 14 Bangladeshi members of Tablighi Jamaat, a worldwide Islamic missionary movement, in South Sumatra have tested positive for COVID-19 according to results released on Sunday. (Antara/Anis Efizudin)

Three out of 14 Bangladeshi members of Tablighi Jamaat, a worldwide Islamic missionary movement, in South Sumatra have tested positive for COVID-19 according to results released on Sunday.

The three are currently undergoing medical treatment at Mohammad Hoesin Hospital in the provincial capital Palembang.

“Those [members of] Tablighi Jamaat had previously visited Bogor [West Java],” spokesperson for South Sumatra Health Agency Yusri told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Bogor is categorized as a “red zone” for COVID-19 infections in Indonesia with the city having 88 confirmed cases and 14 deaths as of Friday.

The three patients were identified as case 167 (a 64- year-old man), case 168 (a 56-year-old man), and case 178 (a 54-year-old woman). They are included among the 29 new cases of COVID-19 in South Sumatra, making a total of 185 confirmed cases in the province so far.

South Sumatra’s COVID-19 rapid response task force has been monitoring the Bangladeshi Tablighi Jamaat members, who are staying at a mosque in Palembang, since April 23. Previously, in a rapid test on April 27, all 14 were found to be negative for the coronavirus.

Given that three have now been declared positive, the remaining 11 Bangladeshis are being treated as suspected cases and are currently in an isolation facility at the Jakabaring athletes village.

“Since [discovering that] the three have tested positive, we’ve been tracking people who might have had direct contact with them. These could be Indonesian members of Tablighi Jamaat or residents living near the mosque,” said Yusri.

Aufa Syahrizal, an official at the Jakabaring athletes village, said that the facility housed several foreigners, from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who had been put in isolation.

He said the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members came to Palembang about three months ago. They were staying in Palembang because their respective home countries were on lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, he added. (trn)