Tablighi Jamaat congregation linked to 4,000 Covid-19 cases in India, but India isn’t the only country to suffer

The Tablighi Jamaat congregation in its central Delhi headquarters, the Markaz, has been linked to over 4,000 Covid-19 cases in the country, the government announced on Saturday. The Jamaat has been linked to 4,291 of the country’s 14,378 coronavirus cases in the country; nearly three out of every ten cases.

But India isn’t the only country in the world that has had to suffer due to Tablighi Jamaat workers unwittingly turning their sect into the country’s virus super spreaders.

In several countries – mostly in south and south-east Asia – the Tablighi Jamaat has been linked to 3,000 more cases, and counting.

Like neighbouring Pakistan where over 500 of the country’s 7,500-plus cases are prima facie linked to the Jamaat workers. One key hotspot in Pakistan was the Raiwind Ijtema, the annual event in March that, according to the police, was attended by about 100,000 people. The Jamaat puts the size of this congregation at twice as much.

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But it is in Malaysia where a Tablighi Jamaat congregation at a sprawling mosque complex on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur is seen as the source of hundreds of new coronavirus cases in the country and far beyond. Malaysia has linked over 1,500 of its 3,500 Covid-19 cases to this congregation.

In February, the mosque complex hosted its annual congregation attended by over 15,000 people who dispersed before countries started ordering the shutdown. Some of them are presumed to have come to India.

It was only when Telangana confirmed that six people who had attended the Delhi event had tested positive that an alarm was sounded.

According to data compiled by Hindustan Times, Jamaat workers have been reported to have tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that causes the coronavirus disease. For example, 79 of the 5.900 Covid-19 cases detected in Indonesia are linked to the Jamaat.

Back in India, the Jamaat challenge appears to be finally in grips in national capital Delhi where the government has traced down hundreds of more people with links to the Jamaat and sent them to quarantine centres. The city hasn’t reported a Jamat-linked positive case in two days.