Education cluster: 525 students positive, 15 schools closed in Kedah

ALOR SETAR: Fifteen schools in Kedah are being closed since Jan 18 when 525 students and 25 teachers were detected to have contracted the virus involving the education cluster.

State Religious, Education and Human Resource Committee chairman, Datuk Najmi Ahmad said that 13 of these were day boarding schools and the other two, normal schools.

He said that due to the situation, the state government had asked the Education Department to continue monitoring and ensuring compliance with the standard operating procedure (SOP) to curb the spread of COVID-19 at the educational institutions.

"We are also asking parents to take note of the situation and cooperate with the relevant authorities in tackling the spread of the viral infection.

"However, the situation is still under control and the infected students have been placed at the Low-Risk COVID-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres including Dewan Wawasan, Jitra," he told reporters, here, today.

Najmi had earlier attended the launching of the SPM 2021 Intervention Programme to Raise the Aspired Achievements (IMPAK) 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 had earlier announced 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 depending on the risk evaluation in these areas.

Najmi also said that there were 162 of the 30,400 primary and secondary school teachers who had still not received the COVID-19 vaccine shots until today.

He said such teachers were not allowed to come face to face with the students and placed separately in ensuring the safety of the students and other teachers.

"Some have given their own 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, hence hampering lessons for the students," he added.

-- BERNAMA