Medical personnel carrying out the ACD at The Spring Shopping Mall in Kuching today.
KUCHING (May 27): An urgent Covid-19 active case detection (ACD) operation was held at The Spring Shopping Mall today after more than 40 people tested positive for the virus to date, said Housing and Local Government Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He said in a Facebook post that the cases required all family members, colleagues, relatives and friends, who are close contact of those infected over the last 14 days, to be assessed and screened for the virus.
“Please self-quarantine till swab results are out in order not to spread to others, in case you are positive and have no symptoms,” he urged the close contacts of those who had been infected.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee advisor also urged the Health Ministry to come out with strict standard operating procedures (SOP) for places where Covid-19 cases had been detected.
He said the ministry must clearly spell out if these premises should be closed for disinfection, all employees must be assessed for Covid-19 risk and tested, whether workers must self-quarantine until they get their test results, and if disinfection should be done by an accredited company with the ministry’s approved disinfectants.
Separately, The Spring Shopping Mall clarified tonight that not all the 40 people were workers of the mall as they also included the workers’ family members and close contacts.
“As far as were informed by the Health Ministry, to date, 14 employees of The Spring Shopping Mall’s security team were tested positive,” the management said in a statement, adding that all those infected and their close contacts were quarantined since May 19 and the last case reported was on May 22.
It revealed further that there eight positive cases detected among workers of tenants in the mall.
The mall’s management also said in a text to the press that those who were swabbed today were its management and operational staff as well as employees of their tenants, no shoppers were affected.
It expected about 1,500 people to be swabbed in total with some of them to be tested at the Covid-19 One Stop Centre at MBKS Community Hall.
Editor’s note: The report has been updated with a clarification from The Spring Shopping Mall’s management.