New KL shopping mall cluster, limited to staff

CORONAVIRUS | Malaysia has finally seen a Covid-19 cluster related to a shopping mall, albeit infections are so far are limited to staff.

According to Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (photo), the 436 mall staff were screened for Covid-19 and only 10 were tested positive so far.

There are 79 test results which are pending.

Of the 10 tested positive, nine are Nepali citizens while one was a Malaysian citizen. All Nepali patients were housemates.

Malaysiakini learnt that this shopping mall, located in the Cheras district, is very near the city centre. Noor Hisham did not name the mall.

Noor Hisham said that the source of infection for this cluster was still being investigated.

"The Cheras and Titiwangsa district health offices will continue to monitor (any) increase in Covid-19 cases involving this cluster.

"All close contacts for every case (in this cluster) have been identified for testing and been briefed on health advice," he said.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said there were eight new cases attributed to the Pusat Bandar Utara and Kuala Lumpur wholesale market area, which are both cordoned off under enhanced movement control order (MCO).

The total number of cases attributed to these two areas are 189, of which 115 cases involved foreigners.

As for the neighbouring Selayang Baru enhanced MCO area, Noor Hisham said there were no new cases.

The number of Covid-19 infections in the Selayang Baru enhanced MCO area stood at 52 of which 36 cases involved foreigners.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

Malaysiakini is providing free access to the most important updates on the coronavirus pandemic. You can find them here.

Help keep independent media alive - subscribe to Malaysiakini. 

Cops nab 11 of 145 migrant workers who fled after Covid-19 tests

Foreign workers in all sectors must be screened for Covid-19, employers to foot bill

MEF insists gov't must bear costs for foreign workers’ Covid-19 tests

Mass testing of foreign workers to prevent new Covid-19 clusters, gov't tells MEF