‘Traders from other markets caught Covid-19 at KL wholesale market’

CORONAVIRUS | The Covid-19 infection at the Kuala Lumpur wholesale market had spread beyond its premises, including to other markets in the Klang Valley.

According to Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, of the 74 infections in the KL wholesale market cluster, 13 people were not working at the market.

Instead, he said the 13, including traders from other markets, had gone there to purchase fresh produce and were subsequently infected.

Among them, he said, was a trader from the Bahau market who had purchased fresh produce from the KL wholesale market before returning to Negri Sembilan.

The Bahau market has since been closed down for sanitisation and all traders there are being screened.

It is not the first market to have closed down in recent weeks.

Two markets in Petaling Jaya, namely the Taman Megah market and the Jalan Othman market, have also been ordered shut for sanitisation and testing.

"We are conducting active case detection at the Taman Megah market and the same applies to the Jalan Othman market. The same also applies to the Chow Kit market.

"We need to conduct active case detection for their close contacts," Noor Hisham told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Malaysiakini understands that both Petaling Jaya markets are also linked to the KL wholesale market cluster.

Noor Hisham also urged all those who had visited the markets to come forward for the Covid-19 screening, especially if they have symptoms of infection such as coughing and fever.

On the source of infection, he said it is believed that several workers of the market had attended the tabligh gathering in Sri Petaling in late February and possibly had spread the virus when they returned.

So far, MOH had conducted tests and collected 15,000 samples from residents around the wholesale market area, which had been placed under the enhanced movement control order (MCO) since April 20.

"If we see the rate of positive cases is not as high compared to the tests we conducted for persons under investigation and close contacts, around four percent.

"And now our action is to enhance the active case detection in the area," he said.

According to Noor Hisham, the ministry is still detecting new cases linked to the Sri Petaling gathering although the gathering was held two months ago.

He said they found that there are positive cases recorded at enhanced MCO areas including at Menara City One, Selangor Mansion, Malayan Mansion, Masjid India area and the KL Wholesale Market linked to the gathering.

"There are those among them who attended the gathering. These clusters are the extension of the Sri Petaling cluster, and we are monitoring them closely.

"Screening has been done and samples taken for tests, and we will do another round after two weeks at these localities."

Noor Hisham also attributed the high number of Covid-19 cases to the Sri Petaling gathering cluster, saying that it makes about 40 percent of the total positive cases in the country.

According to MOH statistics, as of noon today, the health authority detected 17 new cases linked to the cluster.

The new cases are all from the second generation of infection, said Noor Hisham.

So far, MOH had taken a total of 32,122 samples linked to the cluster, of which 2,155 were found positive. These cases are spread from index cases up to the fifth generation of infection.

"If there is no Sri Petaling gathering cluster, maybe our number of cases would be lower than Thailand today," said Noor Hisham when answering a question on Thailand recording only one new case for two days in a row since yesterday. - Mkini