By Karen Bong
KUCHING, May 27: tHe Spring shopping mall has been ordered closed from today until June 9 by the health authority.
The order, which was signed by Kuching Division Health Office public health officer Dr Eunice Melissa Joseph, indicated that the two-week closure was to facilitate works to curb the spread of a disease.
The order was enforced under Sub-Section 18(1)(f) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.
This came following an urgent active case detection (ACD) carried out in tHe Spring shopping mall today after more than 40 Covid-19 cases were linked to the mall to date.
According to Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian in a Facebook post today, the close, workplace and casual contacts linked to these workers will need to be assessed for Covid-19 exposure risk and undergo screening.
He thus advised close contacts to place themselves under self-quarantine until their swab test results are out in order to prevent widespread infection within the wider community.
Dr Sim also urged the Ministry of Health (MOH) to come out with strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) for places where positive cases have been identified.
“Clearly spell out whether they will need to close the premises for disinfection in order to protect not only workers, customers as well as goods, and that all staffs (sic) must be assessed for Covid-19 risk and tested, that they must observed (sic) self-quarantine until results out and on engaging accredited company to carry out disinfection cleaning according to health standards,” he added.
Earlier today, tHe Spring shopping mall descended into chaos after health authorities appeared suddenly in the mall at noon today to carry out mass Covid-19 testing, blocking entry points and refrained shoppers from leaving the premises as mall operations came to a halt at about 1pm.
However, a spokesperson of the mall explained that the mall was not under lockdown as widely circulated on social media while shoppers were released at about 2pm.
The management pointed out that the confusion ensued due to miscommunication between the relevant authorities and shoppers were initially asked to take swab test which was supposedly for all its management and tenants staff as has been informed earlier. — DayakDaily
