Bank closed for sanitisation and COVID-19 preventive measures

BAGAN SERAI, Aug 7  -- A bank closed yesterday for sanitisation purposes as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 after one of its employees was found to have had close contact with a patient.

According to Kerian District Police Chief Supt Omar Bakhtiar Yaacob, news of the bank’s closure went viral on social media yesterday and the bank employee had close contact with a COVID-19 patient when she went back to Kedah for  Hari Raya Aidil Adha recently.

  “However, the bank staff was not a resident in Bagan Serai and did not turn up here after she suspected she was showing early signs for COVID1-9 infection.

“The decision by the bank to close yesterday was part of the early preventive measures and no bank employee was infected with COVID-19," he said in a press conference here tonight.

Yesterday, photographs uploaded on the social media of a notice of the bank’s closure caused public concern that COVID-19 would spread in Bagan Serai.

Meanwhile, Omar Bakhtiar said police had recorded a statement from the owner of a Facebook account holder which caused worry among the public here when a message was uploaded claiming there was a new COVID-19 cluster in Kuala Kurau here recently.

He said the account holder who used the name 'Siti Aminah Binti Ismail' and was being sought after by the police had arrived at the Kerian District Police headquarters at 4.30 p.m.

He said investigations found that the woman, 41, was really concerned and wanted the residents in Kuala Kurau to be aware of the disease, but she made the mistake of giving false information.

"A police check with the Kerian District Health Office found there was no cluster from Singapore in Kuala Kurau and Kampung Parit Mat Ali but the resident from outside Kuala Kurau had returned to the country and was undergoing home quarantine.

“She is not from Kuala Kurau or Parit Mat Ali, but from other areas, and her quarantine will end on Aug 3rd.. Tests conducted on her found her negative for COVID-19 infection,” he said.

-- BERNAMA