Almost 1,000 employees at tHe Spring swabbed in ACD today, hundreds more scheduled to be tested tomorrow

tHe Spring and its tenants' staff members lining up to get swab tests. Photo taken from tHe Spring Shopping Mall's Facebook post.

By Ling Hui

KUCHING, May 27: Almost 1,000 of tHe Spring Shopping Mall’s staff and tenant staff members were swabbed in a snap Active Case Detection (ACD) exercise this afternoon with hundreds more scheduled to be tested tomorrow (May 28).

A spokesperson from tHe Spring mall management, when contacted by DayakDaily, said it had been arranged for those who have yet to be tested for Covid-19 today to take their tests tomorrow at the Covid-19 One-Stop Centre, Padungan.

“Almost 1,000 (individuals) were swabbed, but couldn’t finish (testing) everyone, so those not swabbed are scheduled to do so at MBKS (Covid-19 One Stop Centre). So, in total there could be almost 1,500 (from tHe Spring) swabbed.”

The spokesperson revealed that staff members from Parkson and the Padini Concept Store were among those who could not get tested in time today.

Health officers taking swab samples from tHe Spring shopping mall’s staff. Photo taken from tHe Spring Shopping Mall’s Facebook post.

Noting that no shoppers were involved, the mall management said a total of 158 management and operational staff of tHe Spring were among those swabbed in the five-hour ACD from 3pm to 8pm earlier today.

This happened following chaos at the mall after health authorities suddenly appeared at noon to carry out mass testing while blocking entry points and refraining shoppers from leaving the premises.

Mall operations came to a halt out of the blue as those present were all caught by surprise and the management said they were not informed of the operation in advance, otherwise the mall would have informed the public earlier to prevent such an intense situation from occuring.

Later in the day, a notice of closure was placed at the entrance stating that tHe Spring would be closed from today until June 9. — DayakDaily