Report: Cops looking for homeless man who went for 'tabligh' gathering

KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): The police are currently looking for a 54-year-old homeless man that ran away from a Klinik Kesihatan yesterday.

According to a Malay Mail report, the man had gone to the Klinik Kesihatan Bukit Naga in Shah Alam yesterday morning when he felt sick. Doctors then diagnosed him with a high fever while having suspected signs of a COVID-19 infection.

The man was then taken to “a separate isolated camp” which he later escaped from.

Shah Alam district deputy police chief Supt Ramsay Anak Embol confirmed with the news portal that “efforts to locate the man is ongoing”.

“He is a beggar, a homeless person who sleeps anywhere he likes, has no house and no proper address, but when they [doctors] checked him and they said his body was exhibiting signs that were similar to that of the COVID-19 virus.

“So we are trying to trace him and see if we can find him; we are looking for a sick person so we have to be careful,” Ramsay said.

Ramsay also “clarified” that the man was not yet quarantined or detained by the Klinik Kesihatan when he escaped.

Malay Mail also sighted the police report which revealed that missing homeless man had attended the “itjimak tabligh” event at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur between Feb 28 and March 1.

The Ministry of Health revealed today that up to 16,000 people attended the tabligh gathering.

And of the 16,000, about 14,500 were Malaysians, instead of the lower figure of 5,000 announced a few days ago.

That event has now been known to be linked to a number of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

MOH has set up testing facilities at the Sri Petaling Mosque.