PUTRAJAYA: The health ministry will not reveal the names of restaurants, condominiums, schools or shopping malls where Covid-19 cases have been detected so as not to stigmatise these premises, health-director general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.
At a press conference today, he said the ministry had been under immense pressure to identify the names of specific locations having positive cases, but had not done so to avoid creating any fear among the general public.
“If there are any cases reported at a particular venue, people might not want to go to that school, condo or mall.
“So, our focus is mainly on closing the area for sanitisation and disinfection, to ensure the safety of the public.
“We will do our best to clean up the area but we do not want any stigmatisation, so I won’t mention names,” he said.
Noor Hisham added that genomic sequencing analyses from the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) had traced strains of the virus from the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster, which was detected in February, to Indonesia.
Meanwhile, strains of the virus in the Benteng and Lahad Datu clusters in Sabah were traced back to Indonesia and the Philippines.
He said IMR was still collecting virus samples and conducting genomic sequencing to ensure the ministry was better informed and to help in its plans to overcome the pandemic.
He also announced that since the third wave began on Sept 20, 587 students aged seven to 12 and 670 students aged 13 to 18 had tested positive for Covid-19.
Overall, Noor Hisham said over 2,000 students had been infected since the pandemic first hit the country in February.
Noor Hisham explained this was due to a lack of physical distancing and with large gatherings taking place at schools, thus increasing the chances of transmission among students.
He urged all schools and students to comply with the SOPs issued by the education ministry to avoid the virus from spreading further. - FMT
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