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PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry will not reveal the names of restaurants, condominiums, schools or shopping centers where Covid-19 cases have been detected so as not to stigmatize these facilities, said the general director of health, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah.
At a press conference today, he said the ministry had been under immense pressure to identify specific place names that had positive cases, but had not done so to avoid creating fear among the general public.
“If a case is reported in a particular place, people may not want to go to that school, condo, or mall.
“So our focus is primarily on closing the sanitation and disinfection area, to ensure the safety of the public.
“We will do our best to clean up the area, but we do not want any stigmatization, so I will not mention names,” he said.
Noor Hisham added that genomic sequencing analyzes by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) had traced strains of the virus from Sri Petaling’s tabligh group, which was detected in February, to Indonesia.
Meanwhile, the virus strains in the Benteng and Lahad Datu groups in Sabah can be traced back to Indonesia and the Philippines.
He said IMR was still collecting virus samples and performing genomic sequencing to ensure the ministry was better informed and to assist in its plans to overcome the pandemic.
He also announced that since the third wave began on September 20, 587 students ages seven to 12 and 670 students ages 13 to 18 have tested positive for Covid-19.
Overall, Noor Hisham said more than 2,000 students had been infected since the pandemic first hit the country in February.
Noor Hisham explained that this is due to the lack of physical distancing and the large gatherings that take place in schools, which increases the chances of transmission between students.
He urged all schools and students to comply with SOPs issued by the Ministry of Education to prevent the virus from spreading further.
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