JAIS orders closure of surau, school in Shah Alam over COVID-19

The Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) today ordered the immediate closure of a surau and a religious school in Section 23 here after it was found that a worshipper at the surau had been in close contact with a COVID-19-positive individual of the Sivagangga Cluster in Kedah.

JAIS director Mohd Shahzihan Ahmad said the Surau Al-Jannah and the nearby Sekolah KAFA Al-Jannah will only be allowed to operate again after JAIS gives the word.

The surau will not be allowed to hold the fardhu prayer and Friday prayer as well as other religious activities as a measure to check the spread of COVID-19 infection among the local people, he said in a statement.

The surau and school will also have to be sanitised at once, he said, adding that the surau committee has been ordered to monitor the situation closely.

Mohd Shahzihan advised the local community not to panic because the closure of the surau is a normal procedure to prevent the spread of the disease.

The Health Ministry reported the Patient-Under-Investigation (PUI) Sivagangga Cluster on July 28, saying it originated from a restaurant owner and permanent resident who had returned to Jitra, Kedah, from India on July 13.

The individual tested negative for COVID-19 at the KL International Airport and was placed under home quarantine but did not heed the order and subsequently tested positive for the disease and was admitted to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Kedah.

Today, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement that the Sivagangga Cluster has registered 43 cases so far, 31 of them in Kedah, 11 in Perlis and one in Penang.

The cases include 12 reported as of noon today, of which 10 are in Perlis and one each in Kedah and Penang.

-- BERNAMA