Quarantine breakers turn out to be pet cafe visitors

A photograph of the couple wearing pink wristbands at Penang Hill was widely shared. (Facebook pic)

GEORGE TOWN: A couple feared to be quarantine breakers at Penang Hill over the weekend were merely customers at a pet cafe, police said today.

The couple were photographed at the Penang Hill car park wearing pink wristbands, similar to those worn by those required to be in home quarantine as “persons under investigation” for Covid-19.

But police said the wristbands were merely from a dog-themed restaurant they had visited earlier.

The couple, aged 21 and 22, were from Butterworth. They lodged a police report after the photograph was widely shared on Facebook for fear that they were Covid-19 patients.

Northeast district police chief Soffian Santong said the couple had visited the Corgi and The Gang Pet Cafe in town before heading to Penang Hill on Sunday afternoon.

“To enter the dog petting shop and restaurant, they each had to wear a pink paper wristband with the words ‘Husky and the Gang’.

“They did not want to remove the wristband as they wanted to go to the shop again after their Penang Hill visit,” he said.

Soffian said the couple’s names were not found on the health ministry’s list of cases under investigation.- FMT