Antara, Jakarta – West Jakarta authorities began to evacuate 183 people from a mosque and send them to the isolation facility on Saturday evening after three of them tested positive for coronavirus during a Muslim gathering.

The participants include 78 foreign citizens who made a pilgrimage to the century-old Jammi Mosque in Taman Sari subdistrict.

All the participants have been kept inside the mosque since Thursday after three of them, reportedly from Sumatra, tested positive for the virus.

West Jakarta Mayor Rustam Effendi said all the people inside the mosque were evacuated in stages and transported to the makeshift hospital at the athletes' village in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

"In the first batch, 39 people were transported to the Kemayoran Athletes' Village. The rest will follow in stages," Rustam said.

The city provided tourist buses to evacuate the participants, who will spend at least two weeks at the makeshift hospital.

"Hopefully every one of them will move from here by the morning," Rustam added.

The foreigners included 48 from India, 10 from Bangladesh, four from Sri Lanka, 10 from Thailand, five from Palestine and one from Pakistan.

The news about confirmed Covid-19 carriers among the participants stirred a widespread panic in the neighborhood and prompted authorities to deploy policemen and soldiers to prevent anyone in the mosque from leaving.

The Jakarta government has announced an emergency and imposed restrictions on travels and public gatherings amid the rapidly growing Covid-19 cases in the capital.

Worship places are told to halt religious congregations, including the Friday congregational prayer for Muslims, until the outbreak is over.

Jakarta is the epicenter of the outbreak in Indonesia with 627 confirmed cases and 62 deaths as of Saturday. At the national level, there are 1,155 positive cases and 102 fatalities, according to the government data.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/jakarta-muslim-gathering-ends-with-183-placed-in-quarantine