Entire village in Kelantan gets tested for Covid-19

 

It was an unusually busy day for villagers at Kampung Chedok in Tanah Merah, Kelantan as all of them, young and old, underwent Covid-19 screening tests today.

A 30-year-old resident, who wanted to be known as Khairul, said they were told by health officers to get tested after some who returned to the village tested positive for Covid-19.

They were believed to have returned to the village when the interstate travel ban was lifted.

"I learned that the authorities decided to screen the villagers after some people who returned to the village contracted Covid-19.

"So today, the villagers volunteered to come for the screening," he said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

Last month, the government lifted the ban on inter-district and interstate travel for the entire country except for areas under enhanced movement control order (MCO).

However, after MCO 2.0 was announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday (Jan 11), the travel ban was reinstated nationwide to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The government reintroduced the MCO after the country recorded continuous four-digit daily cases since November last year. The new MCO applies to Penang, Selangor, Malacca, Johor, Sabah, and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Labuan.

In addition, the cities of Kuching, Sibu, and Miri are also under the MCO. Perlis and other districts in Sarawak are under the recovery MCO, while the rest of the other states are under the conditional MCO.

Meanwhile, Khairul said the villagers are worried about the Covid-19 outbreak in Kampung Chedok after the "virus carriers" were said to have visited many locations throughout the village.

"Other than this village, the next village also had a round of tests and some had taken the test earlier at the clinic or hospital," he said.

Photos of the villagers queuing up to be tested were shared widely on social media.

For the record, Kelantan saw a spike of Covid-19 cases for the past two weeks with positive cases soaring to 1,565.

State health department director Dr Zaini Husin confirmed that testing took place at Kampung Chedok today but said he couldn't share any details.- Mkini