A TOTAL of 204 workers at the Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) vaccination centre in Shah Alam, Selangor have tested positive for Covid-19, Khairy Jamaluddin said today. 

The coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme said in a press conference that the positive cases were detected following a mass screening exercise.

The vaccination centre was shut down today for sanitisation works.

“The centre was immediately closed after the test results of the IDCC staff came out last night,” he said.

Khairy said he had ordered for the mass screening of all staff at the centre on July 10, after two volunteer staff members tested positive for Covid-19.

“The RT-PCR test results showed that all of the positive cases had a Ct (threshold cycle) of more than 35, which means their virus load was low,” he said.

He also advised those who went for their vaccination appointments from July 9 onwards to monitor for symptoms for a period of 10 days.

He added that those who experienced symptoms should get tested for Covid-19.

Khairy said the vaccination centre has 453 staff, whereby 400 of them have been vaccinated while the remaining have yet to be immunised.

He said the vaccination centre would resume operations tomorrow.

Those who have their appointments scheduled for today will be notified via SMS and social media of the closure of the vaccination centre. New appointments will also be given out in the near future.

He added that corrective measures have been taken, whereby the staff at the vaccination centre will be replaced to reduce the risk of infection.

Adding that this was the first time an outbreak has happened at a vaccination centre, Khairy said he has ordered all centres to continue to strictly comply with the standard operating procedure.

“We are considering more stringent measures to be implemented in all vaccination centres and this will be announced periodically,” he said.

Khairy said the source of the infection was unknown and the staff members who have contracted the virus have been isolated. – July 13, 2021.