KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — Management of the Setia City Convention Centre (SCCC) mega Covid-19 vaccination site (PPV) took quick action upon detecting seven positive Covid-19 cases among staff, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) asserted today.
According to CITF, the seven Covid-19 cases at the PPV in Shah Alam, Selangor, were immediately reported to the Ministry of Health (MOH) after they were identified last July 11. All 11 close contacts of the seven PPV staff infected with Covid-19 tested negative and had been instructed to self-isolate pending test results.
Eleven close contacts being officially identified means that the seven Covid-19 cases presumably interacted only with less than two people on average while on duty at the PPV that may extend for hours. CITF did not state how much time the seven PPV staff had spent at their workplace.
“Because the information of positive cases is private and confidential, only registered medical officers are permitted to possess such information,” CITF said in a statement.
“At the same time, SCCC does not prohibit other workers from getting tested.”
Earlier, volunteers from SCCC PPV told CodeBlue that the PPV management did not inform staff about at least four Covid-19 cases among coworkers that they knew of, which they only found out from the infected volunteers themselves, some from a work WhatsApp group.
The anonymous volunteers also mentioned that the SCCC PPV management did not instruct mass screening of staff and failed to produce guidelines specifying steps to be taken by both the facility management and staff in the event a positive Covid-19 case is detected in their workplace at the vaccination centre.
CITF’s statement did not address complaints about the lack of guidelines on Covid-19 cases found in the PPV workplace. Instead, CITF stressed that all Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) are being followed in all the PPVs, including SCCC.
That includes adherence to physical distancing, monitoring of staff and volunteers who possess Covid-19 symptoms, temperature scanning for PPV workers before clocking in, mandatory usage of face masks and encouraged use of face shields while on duty.
All PPVs, said CITF, follow the Ministry of Health’s guidelines on ventilation of health care facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The identified area in the PPV has been sanitised immediately by the SCCC management,” said CITF.
One of the volunteers from SCCC PPV, who spoke to CodeBlue, complained that Covid-19 positive vaccinees previously managed to enter the PPV because they didn’t get proper notifications from the MySejahtera app.
CITF explained that recovered Covid-19 patients who received their shots were allowed to get vaccinated after completing their quarantine period with proof of home release orders issued by the state health department if they are healthy and do not have symptoms, as stated in the Clinical Guideline on Covid-19 Vaccination of Malaysia, 2nd edition.
This is the second mega PPV in Shah Alam to report Covid-19 cases among staff and volunteers, amid a worsening outbreak in Selangor.
Last Tuesday, Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said 204, nearly half of 453 staff at Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) tested positive for Covid-19 in a mass screening undertaken after two volunteers contracted the virus. MOH has since classified the outbreak as a cluster, named the Jalan Pahat 15 cluster.
