Covid-19 Watch: 15 Kedah schools closed after 525 students and 25 teachers test positive

ALOR SETAR: Fifteen schools in Kedah have been closed since Jan 18 after a total of 525 students and 25 teachers were found to have contracted Covid-19.

State religious, education and human resource committee chairman Datuk Najmi Ahmad said 13 of these were day boarding schools and the other two, regular schools.

He said that because of the situation, the state government had asked the Education Department to continue monitoring and ensuring compliance with standard operating procedures (SOP) to curb the spread of Covid-19.

"We are also asking parents to... cooperate with the relevant authorities in tackling the spread of infection.

"The situation is under control and the infected students have been placed at low-risk quarantine and treatment centres including Dewan Wawasan, Jitra,” he told reporters here on Monday (Jan 24).

Najmi had earlier attended the launch of the SPM 2021 Intervention Programme to Raise Aspired Achievements by Tunku Temenggong Kedah, Tan Sri Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz Almarhum Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, who is also the patron of the programme.

The Kedah Health Department announced earlier that 10 education clusters had been detected involving schools in a number of districts including Pendang, Kulim, Kubang Pasu, Yan and Kuala Muda.

All the affected schools are closed for a week or possibly longer, depending on the risk evaluation in these areas.

Najmi also said 162 of the state's 30,400 primary and secondary school teachers had still not received the Covid-19 vaccine until today.

He said such teachers were not allowed to have face-to-face interactions with students and were placed separately to ensure the safety of the school populations.

"Some have given excuses or reasons for not being vaccinated. For now, we are persuading them to reconsider their decision as some things have cropped up such as the schools having to provide a separate place for them, hampering lessons for the students,” he added. – Bernama