PETALING JAYA: The management of 1 Utama Shopping Centre has refuted a report by the Petaling District Disaster Management Committee (JPBD) that the mall had 63 Covid-19 cases.
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“(We) wish to clarify that 1 Utama does not have 63 Covid-19 cases,” it said in a statement.
“It is misleading to imply that all cases stated in their report originated from 1 Utama as no index case has been identified as coming from 1 Utama.”
Yesterday, the committee said there were 63 Covid-19 cases under the 1 Utama cluster, comprising a member of the mall’s management, 15 workers at the mall, three visitors and 44 security guards
1 Utama said a mass swab test of 6,000 mall and tenant staff found 21 Covid-19 cases.
“These 21 persons have been swiftly quarantined by the health ministry to contain the spread and further minimise potential exposure.”
The mall said it had carried out mass testing to quickly identify possible positive cases working there to facilitate contact tracing by the health ministry.
It also said the 44 security guards who tested positive were not part of the mass testing exercise at 1 Utama.
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“They are in fact outsourced contract guards from a third party service provider where Covid-19 was contracted through a dormitory and not within our premises.
“When we were initially informed by the health ministry of one guard testing positive through their tracing, we removed all guards from the same company for re-testing and will only re-deploy (them) after they are cleared, although all guards were tested when they were first assigned,” it said.
So, it added, it was not correct to say there were 63 cases from 1 Utama.
“We hope that our correction and clarification provides a clearer picture of the current situation.”
1 Utama will be closed for 14 days from Oct 11 after four positive cases were detected.-FMT