Flood evacuees not allowed to return home before houses are sanitised

PASIR PUTEH: Flood evacuees placed at temporary relief centres, whose houses are in COVID-19 cluster areas, are not allowed to return until their houses have been sanitised first.

Pasir Puteh deputy district chief, Kamarulzaman Ab Wahab said, the ruling was made as a precaution and preventive measure to ensure that they are completely safe upon returning to their homes.

"Those involved need to be patient even though basically their homes are safe to occupy (from the threat of floods),” he told reporters at the closing of the evacuation centre at the Kamil Complex Hall here, yesterday.

He said this when asked to comment on the statement by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday, who among others, said that a new cluster (Huma) was detected involving Pasir Puteh and Kota Bharu districts when the index case (case no. 68,020) was reported on Dec 2 as a result of screening close contacts.

As of Dec 4, after 80 individuals were screened 20 tested positive for COVID-19 in the cluster.

Kamarulzaman said four relief centres, namely Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Sungai Petai, Kamil Complex Hall, SK Bukit Jawa 2 and SK Changgai were closed starting this morning.

He said, however, two relief centres, namely SK Kamil 3 and SK Wakaf Raja were still in operation prior to sanitising the evacuees homes which were still flooded.

Meanwhile, Pasir Puteh district Social Welfare Officer, Wan Norhayati Wan Husain said, 167 of the 219 evacuees from the four evacuation centres were allowed to return to their homes yesterday.

She said, RM25 a day was spend on each evacuee to supply basic food including ‘nasi bungkus’ and drinking water four times a day since Thursday.

“This does not include daily basic supplies such as rice, sardines and sugar for two families in Bukit Gedombak who could not be evacuated due to certain obstacles,” she added.

-- BERNAMA