1 Utama reopens doors today

Back in business: An electronic billboard at 1 Utama in Petaling Jaya announcing the reopening of a supermarket in the mall. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star

PETALING JAYA: The 1 Utama shopping mall will reopen today following extensive disinfection all over the mall, especially on high-touch surfaces.

A 1 Utama spokesperson said the mall’s reopening had the Health Ministry’s endorsement.

“Our mall remains open during the conditional movement control order (MCO) until Oct 27 from

10am to 10pm daily.

“Some tenants will operate under flexible business hours from 11am to 8pm daily, ” the spokesperson added.

On Thursday, the mall’s management disputed a report by Petaling district disaster management committee chairman Johary Anuar that “44 security guards from the mall were infected”.

“When 1 Utama was initially earlier informed by MOH that one outsourced contract guard (from a third party security company) contracted the virus, the mall immediately removed him and informed his security company of the case so that it could test all the other guards it employed.

“The 43 other positive cases were spread from a dormitory of the security company and not from

1 Utama, ” said the spokesperson.

The mall also clarified that the 44 positive cases among the guards were not from its internal mass testing exercise, which saw more than 6,000 people who work in the mall tested.

“With 13 malls in the Klang Valley already reporting Covid-19 cases,

1 Utama is the first and only mall to risk it all and go beyond our call of duty to conduct a mass test on such a scale.

“The maxim of ‘Test more, know more, no test, no case’ rings true, ” said the spokesperson, who emphasised that other than security personnel, all tenants and management staff had been cleared for duty.

“Our team has gone the extra mile to ensure the continued safety of patrons and the community at large. Our effort of massive sanitisation is in strict accordance with the Health Ministry’s SOP.

“Our management will continue to strive to provide a safe shopping experience with round-the-clock cleaning using hospital-grade disinfectants and air purification via high-efficiency filters and powerful ultraviolet lights, ” the spokesperson added.