Two more Covid-19 patients linked to the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster have died March 21, 2020, bringing the cumulative deaths from the novel coronavirus in Malaysia to eight. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — Two more Covid-19 patients linked to the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster have died, Health director-general Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah disclosed this evening.

The new deaths are in addition to the six already reported earlier today.

“I must regretfully disclose that as of now, there have been four more deaths due to Covid-19 reported to the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC).

“The latest reports bring the cumulative deaths from Covid-19 in Malaysia to eight,” he said on Facebook.

The seventh death is of a Malaysian man, 57, with a history of travel to Vietnam and in the tabligh cluster. He had been admitted to Hospital Kuala Lumpur on March 18 and died at 3.22pm today.

The eighth is also a Malaysian aged 69 and from the same cluster. He had gone to Hospital Tumpat on March 16 after developing a fever four days earlier. He was then moved to Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II in Kota Baru, Kelantan on March 18 and died at 4pm today.

Health authorities have continued pleading with attendees of the tabligh ijtimak event, held at the Jamek Sri Petaling mosque in Kuala Lumpur from February 27 to March 1, to seek testing for Covid-19.

It is believed that thousands of the attendees are refugees and undocumented migrants who are concerned they may be detained for immigration offences if they come forth.

The Health Ministry said earlier today that they will not disclose any patient information to third parties, in yet another attempt to convince the holdouts from the tabligh cluster to come forth for testing.

After the early success in containing the first wave of Covid-19 infections, Malaysia has experienced a sharp rise in cases, hundreds of which have been connected to the tabligh event.

Malaysia reported another 153 Covid-19 infections today to bring the country’s total to 1,183.