THE Sivagangga cluster in Kedah originated from the owner of an eatery who violated home quarantine orders, said Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

As of today, the Sivagangga cluster has seen 21 people – 16 locals and five foreigners – test positive for Covid-19, while 42 others are awaiting their results.

Among those who tested positive are primary school pupils.

A total of 425 people have been screened as of today.

At a press conference in Putrajaya, Noor Hisham said the cluster’s index case had recently returned to Malaysia from India.

The individual had violated the Home Surveillance Order (HSO) that was given, Noor Hisham added.

“This non-compliance resulted in an outbreak of Covid-19 infections,” he said, adding that the Health Ministry is currently carrying out active case detection in the affected area.

However, Noor Hisham said the district health office and state Health Ministry were facing challenges in carrying out close-contact detections.

“This is because the eatery did not utilise the MySejahtera app to record the temperature and identities of those who patronised the shop,” he said.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said a customer of the eatery tested positive for Covid-19 today.

The man was previously screened at a private clinic on July 27, where he tested negative with the Rapid Test Kit Antibody test.

But by July 31, the patient was exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms of fever and a cough, but did not contact the local health authorities.

A day later, after the Hari Raya Aidiladha celebrations, he was admitted to Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital for treatment.

“Taking a lesson from this, the Health Ministry would like to remind all communities not to keep any ailments or symptoms a secret. Information, such as close contacts with Covid-19-positive patients, must be made available to the health authorities.

“The public must do its part by stepping forward if there has been contact with Covid-19-positive cases. This is a social responsibility on everyone’s part to ensure the chain of infections is broken.”

Noor Hisham also urged all businesses to register with the MySejahtera app to ease the detection of infections. – August 3, 2020.