KUALA TERENGGANU: The action of certain business owners in banning residents from Ketengah Jaya in Dungun from entering their outlets for fear of Covid-19 infection is a form of discrimination and should not have happened, said Terengganu State Health Department Director Dr Nor Azimi Yunus (pix).
Ketengah Jaya, which is located in Rasau, has a population of 31,000 and so far, has recorded 22 positive cases of Covid-19.
“Stop this discrimination. This is not the way to achieve victory in the fight against Covid-19, but this action will affect the harmony of a society,” she wrote in a post on her Facebook account, today.
Dr Nor Azimi said the Covid-19 cases were only reported in certain localities, not spread throughout the Rasau area as assumed by the public so there was no apparent reason why the residents from Ketengah Jaya or Rasau should be barred from entering business premises.
Recently, affected residents took to social media expressing their predicaments of being banned from restaurants and other business outlets on the grounds of preventing the spread of Covid-19 transmission.
Dr Nor Azimi said as soon as Covid-19 patients were traced, they would be placed under the mandatory 14-day quarantine or brought to the hospital for treatment, thus the risk of transmission by positive cases or their close contacts in the community was very low.
She said strict adherence to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) such as wearing face masks, keeping physical distancing, restricting movement and constant hand washing would help reduce the risk of getting Covid-19 infection.
Instead of preventing residents from Ketengah Jaya from entering their premises, premise owners should ensure they use the MySejahtera application, conduct body temperature screening and provide adequate hand sanitisers at their premises, she said.
Such acts of extreme fear proved that the community still had a low understanding of the risk of infection, she added. — Bernama
