NEWS of Covid-19 infections in a part of Brickfields led to a slump in business in Little India, which is at the other corner of the hub in Kuala Lumpur.

Some traders in Little India claim business declined by up to 80% since news broke out about cases 1.5km away.

They fear that Little India – consisting of restaurants, Indian garments, jewellery and textiles shops – would suffer more as a result of misreporting of the cases as being in their area.

“We understand there are two Covid-19 cases but we believe that they are not from Little India but another corner of Brickfields.

“To date, particularly along this stretch, there have been no Covid-19 incidents at the shop lots or among workers,” said Brickfields Business Community Society spokesman Kumar Alagarsamy.

Businesses in Little India are all strictly adhering to the government standard operating procedures against the spread of the virus, he said.

Their plight stems from director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s announcement on Sunday that a new cluster in Kuala Lumpur was detected at a restaurant in Brickfields.

From that cluster, two Indian nationals tested positive for Covid-19 out of 14 restaurant workers and 236 customers.

Noor Hisham did not mention a specific area or restaurant.

The situation worsened for Little India, especially among restaurant owners, when the media reported this along with photographs and videos of the area.

Kumar, who is also Sri Paandi restaurant managing director, said people started to shun the area after the news reports.

“Pictures and videos of Little India were featured in the news and online but this is not the affected area.

“The news outlets featured the wrong area. Because our customers are getting the wrong information, they don’t feel safe and are shunning the area.”

Since Brickfields made it into the news, business dropped between 60% and 80%, he said.

“There are about 37 shops and restaurants here. Our businesses will continue to decline if this matter is not rectified.

“We don’t want to lose more customers.”

Kumar said the committee will try to contact media outlets to rectify the news.

“We feel that the information was wrongly disseminated.”

Seetharam Family Curry House owner S. Mahoharan said Brickfields is a big area and the virus did not affect them.

“We were doing brisk business on Sunday and when the news broke on Monday, we suffered losses up to 80%.”

In February, they spent RM170,000 to renovate the restaurant and were hit with the movement control-order on March 18, he said.

“Now when we are trying to recover, this happens. We need the news outlets to publish the correct information.” – July 24, 2020.