Mosques remain open despite virus threats; congregational prayers limited.

ISLAMABAD: Worshippers crowded into mosques in the country on Friday, defying warnings about the fast-spreading coronavirus and fuelling fears of a public health crisis in the impoverished country.

In contrast to many other Muslim countries, Pakistani clerics and government officials have refused to close mosques attended by millions each week, where hugs and handshakes are common.

The country's leading religious scholars have only advised that the old and sick avoid prayers and instructed clerics to keep sermons brief.

"We don't believe in coronavirus, we believe in Allah. Whatever happens, it happens from Allah," said Altaf Khan, as worshippers wearing masks arrived for Friday prayers in the capital Islamabad.

Tiktok videos garnering hundreds of thousands of likes on social media in Pakistan have called for Muslims to attend mosques despite public health warnings.

"Most of the people are terrified," said Islamabad resident Syed Ashfaq Ahmed after visiting a mosque this week.

"They went to the mosque to seek help from Allah."

Pakistan has so far declared more than 1,300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine deaths but there are fears that limited testing is understating the true scale of the outbreak which has infected more than 530,000 people globally.

The majority of its early cases have been directly linked to pilgrims returning from Iran, where for weeks authorities refused to close its shrines as the virus spread, exposing possibly tens of thousands of people.

In many parts of the Muslim world, countries are taking action.

Saudi Arabia has halted pilgrimages and closed mosques, while scholars in Egypt have issued a fatwa permitting the banning of public prayers to help contain the virus outbreak.

Turkey has shut mosques to mass gatherings while Muslim organisations in Indonesia called for Friday prayers to be carried out at home -- though many ignored the advice.

Muslims turned out as normal in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, however, where mosques were packed and prayer leaders called on their congregations to be brave.

"Allah will protect Muslims from disasters from the coronavirus," a prayer leader told a crowded mosque in the city.

There has also been a mixed response in some predominantly Christian countries.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro -- who was elected in 2018 with the backing of the country's burgeoning evangelical Christian community -- declared churches exempt from virus containment measures.

Most places of worship in...