THE 1 Utama shopping mall Covid-19 cluster has increased to 105, the Petaling district office said today.

The Petaling district disaster management committee said in an update on Facebook that security guards accounted for the bulk of new infections.

The identified cases involved 79 security personnel, 18 cleaners, and eight tenants – one from C&C Cookies, one from Daiso and six from Teh Tarik Place.

“All cases in the 1 Utama cluster were non-citizens except for employees of Daiso,” said committee chairman Johari Anuar.

Johari said in a statement yesterday that the 1 Utama cluster was linked to 63 cases, of which 59 were in the Petaling district while four are outside its jurisdiction.

The popular mall will be closed for two weeks until October 25 after 63 Covid-19 cases were traced to it.

Selangor issued the directive after detecting four cases among three workers and a visitor on Sunday.

1 Utama, however, disputed the statement that there are 63 cases linked to it yesterday.

It said it’s misleading to state that all cases originated from the mall as no index case has been identified.

1 Utama clarified that there were 21 positive cases identified from the mass testing of 6,000 mall and tenant staff members on Sunday and Monday.

“From the 6,000, we have yesterday concluded test results and successfully identified 20 tenant staff and one mall management staff as Covid-19 positive.

“The 21 have been swiftly quarantined by Health Ministry to contain the spread and further minimise potential exposure,” the management said.

It also said the 44 cases involving guards mentioned by the committee did not originate from the mall and are not part of the mass testing.

“They are in fact outsourced contract guards from a third-party provider where Covid-19 was contracted through a dormitory and not within our premises.”

1 Utama said after it was alerted that one guard had tested positive for Covid-19, all other guards identified through contact tracing were removed, retested and redeployed only after they were cleared. – October 15, 2020.