This is the second of three articles on how government healthcare staff and the local communities coped with the daunting task of controlling a Covid-19 outbreak in Simpang Renggam, Johor, where the nation’s first Enhanced Movement Control Order was declared on March 27 last year.
KLUANG: It has been more than a year since Simpang Renggam here earned the unenviable reputation of “hosting” the nation’s first lockdown after an Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) was imposed in Kampung Dato’ Ibrahim Majid, Bandar Baru Ibrahim Majid and nearby villages in March last year to contain a Covid-19 outbreak in the community.
The events that unfolded over the month-long EMCO (from March 27 to April 28, 2020) will remain etched in the memories of the 2,599-odd residents who were filled with anxiety and fear as they prepared themselves to undergo mass sampling to detect the presence of a virus that had triggered the start of a pandemic worldwide.
A healthcare team was swiftly dispatched to Simpang Renggam by the Ministry of Health to carry out active case detection after 61 positive cases emerged in the local community.
As if the trepidation of having to deal with an “enemy” invisible to the naked eye was not enough, the distressed residents also had to contend with the negative perception of “outsiders” who appeared to blame them for the Covid-19 outbreak in the community.
During the entire EMCO period, a total of 193 individuals from the affected areas tested positive for Covid-19, including four who succumbed to the disease.
Youngest patient 25-day-old baby
Bernama spoke to several residents in Kampung Dato’ Ibrahim Majid and Bandar Baru Ibrahim Majid who shared their ordeal of grappling with a seemingly deadly and unknown infection.
Among them were Azeila Selamat and her husband Shahizwan Sahlan from Bandar Baru Ibrahim Majid whose 25-day-old daughter Nur Aishah Zahra Shahizwan emerged as the youngest COVID-19 patient after she tested positive for the disease.
The news that their daughter had Covid-19 hit the couple like a thunderbolt as she was their first-born after two years of marriage.
As Azeila, 27, recalled, she was still in her confinement period when the three of them went to Sekolah Kampung Dato’ Ibrahim Majid to get themselves screened for Covid-19.
“We were among the thousands of residents who had to go for testing. We were told that it would take 48 hours for us to be informed of our results. So after the 48 hours passed, we thought we were safe.
“However, one week after being tested, we found out that a neighbour of ours was Covid-19 positive and this person was tested on the same day as us. This is when we became worried,” she related.
That same day, after the evening prayers, Azeila caught her husband looking worriedly at their baby.
“I knew something was not right. He told me he had just received a phone call from a person who wanted to confirm their house address. Not long after that, another phone call came confirming that our child had tested positive.”
The news, of course, frightened the young mother but she was somewhat relieved when told that she could take care of her infant in the hospital.
Always in tears
The eight-day stay at Hospital Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom in Kluang was a nerve-wracking experience for Azeila as she also had to contend with postpartum baby blues, made worse by the fact that her husband could not be there to help take care of their child.
“I was always crying while at the hospital. Every day, I would talk to my husband and family members via video calls.
“A friend of mine who tested positive for Covid-19 was also admitted to the same hospital and I contacted her on WhatsApp. She told me she had to leave her three-month-old baby and three-year-old child behind. She said she was still nursing her baby and was not able to store her breast milk (for her baby to drink during her absence). I learned to be strong from her,” said Azeila.
She cannot wait for her daughter to grow older so that she can tell her all about the ordeal of caring for a barely one-month-old baby who tested positive for a disease that impacted not only the nation but the whole world.
“People are all so scared when they hear of Covid-19. Just imagine how I felt when my baby was tested positive... I was so afraid,” she added.
Stroke
When retiree and Bandar Baru Ibrahim Majid resident Hamdan Salleh, 74, heard a Covid-19 cluster had emerged involving the participants of a Tabligh event that took place at Masjid Seri Petaling in Selangor between Feb 18 and March 2, 2020, he remembered he had close contact with a person who had then just returned after attending the event.
A few days after the EMCO was declared, all eight members of Hamdan’s family were told to go for a Covid-19 screening. Hamdan, his wife and their youngest son aged 26 were confirmed positive and immediately quarantined at Hospital Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom in Kluang.
“Before we were screened (for Covid-19), my wife had already developed a cough while my son lost his sense of taste. But I did not show any symptom. We didn’t know much then and people told us it was not Covid-19. When we were admitted to hospital, I kept worrying about the others in my family, including my three grandchildren,” he said.
Hamdan had to be hospitalised for a month as the doctors detected other health complications such as the shrinking of his kidneys and thickening of his blood.
Worse still, he suffered a stroke during his stay at the hospital.
“For two days (after the stroke) I lay on my bed. I couldn’t do anything... others had to put diapers on for me and I had to be fed through a tube,” he said.
Hamdan said he was in the hospital during the first two weeks of Ramadan last year and his doctor advised him not to fast as his body needed three litres of water a day.
He was discharged from hospital two weeks before Hari Raya Aidilfitri and is grateful for his full recovery.
“I was so happy to go back to my family after being on the brink of death,” he added.
Volunteers
As for Mohd Zin Erjam, who is the chairman of the Bandar Baru Ibrahim Majid Rukun Tetangga committee, he had lent a helping hand to his fellow community members but ended up getting infected by the Covid-19 virus.
During the EMCO, he had offered his house to serve as the distribution centre for food items meant for the residents there.
“Although information regarding Covid-19 was already being disseminated then, we didn’t feel anything. On March 30 (2020), all five members of my family were asked to get ourselves tested for Covid-19.
“At that time, it took about a week to get the results. So we continued with our work of distributing food supplies (to the residents) and people would gather at my house for this purpose,” he said, adding that a week later he and his wife were confirmed positive and admitted to the Kluang hospital.
“That was the time when I received news that two people I used to meet regularly at the mosque had died due to Covid-19. We all felt scared too and our family members cried when my wife and I were sent to hospital,” said the 61-year-old former teacher.
Mohd Zin also said that the Covid-19 outbreak in their residential area brought out the best in the local community who displayed a remarkable spirit of unity despite the negative comments hurled at them by others who did not have a clear understanding of the EMCO situation.
“It was a critical time for us all but we remained united and our spirit of cooperation stood out,” he said, adding that even though they knew the source of the transmission of the coronavirus, none of them pointed an accusing finger at the person.
Mohd Zin has also published a special magazine titled “Covid-19: BBIM Lockdown” to document the events of the nation’s first EMCO. The magazine was for circulation among the local community. - Bernama
