GAZA CITY: The Palestinian city’s first two confirmed cases of the novelcoronavirus had attended a religious conference in Pakistan last monthalong with 250,000 Muslims, an official and family members said on Monday.
The congregation had gone on despite government’s advice to cancel it owingto the coronavirus threat.
The Pakistani authorities had urged for the cancellation of the five-dayTablighi Ijtema congregation hosted annually near Lahore but organisersfrom the movement ignored government advice to postpone.
The movement was founded by religious scholars more than five decades agoand focuses exclusively on preaching Islam. At the time, Ehsanullah — oneof the event’s organisers who goes by one name — had told AFP that althoughmost had gone home, “still tens of thousands of people are here” and otherswould return.
“Our elders and organisers decided that the gathering will proceed asplanned,” Ehsanullah had said. Shortly thereafter, Foreign Minister ShahMehmood Qureshi had said: “Thank God, the coronavirus pandemic is undercontrol in Pakistan.”
It was unclear where the two Palestinians — who returned to Gaza fromPakistan via Egypt earlier this month — contracted COVID-19.
But a statement from the Palestinian embassy in Islamabad said the twoattended the event, which took place “despite the warning of the Pakistaniauthorities against conferences”.
Omar al-Tabatibi said his 79-year-old grandfather, Mohammed, and friendAmer Doghmosh had attended the Lahore event.
Previous statements from health officials had misidentified the men asbeing between 30 and 40. “My grandfather learnt about the conference bychance from a friend while he was in Pakistan so he wanted to attend,”Tabatibi said.
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After returning from Pakistan, his grandfather stayed several days in Egyptbefore taking the long journey overland to Gaza, Tabatibi said. “Maybe, mygrandfather caught corona in Egypt and not Pakistan, no one knows,” headded.
He said the family had already been subjected to abuse on social media andin person since the news broke.
“My little brother went to a games shop today and the owner told him to gohome as his grandfather has corona [virus].”
Gaza’s health ministry said the two men were placed in quarantineimmediately after crossing into Gaza and did not mix with the population.It described them as being in stable condition.
Omar said his grandfather has pre-existing conditions of high bloodpressure and diabetes. “I spoke to him last night on the phone and he toldme he was okay and is recovering,” he said.
The United Nations has warned that a COVID-19 outbreak in Gaza could bedisastrous, given the high poverty rates and weak health system in thecoastal strip under Israeli blockade since 2007. – APP / AFP
