ALOR SETAR: The Kedah State Health Department confirmed today that a three-year-old child is the first COVID-19 case to be detected involving tourists to Langkawi under the tourism bubble.

Kedah Health director Dr Othman Warijo said that based on investigations by the Langkawi District Health Office, the family of three - the parents and the three-year-old - from Nilai, Negeri Sembilan had arrived in Langkawi at 7.30 pm on Sept 24 via a flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2).

He said the child began having fever the next day (Sept 25) and was sent for treatment on Sept 26 before being confirmed COVID-19 positive.

"As of today, only one positive case has been reported involving tourists to Langkawi and there are no infections among the family members and locals.

"The patient has mild symptoms and been placed under the Langkawi District CAC (COVID-19 Assessment Centre) observation while the close contacts have shown no symptoms and all have been fully vaccinated," he said in a statement today.

Dr Othman said that based on the investigation, they also found that besides the parents, three locals from the resort island were also close contacts of the infected child.

"All five close contacts have undergone swab tests and been ordered to undergo quarantine for 10 days. The results of all the swab tests came back negative," he said.

He added that there was a possibility the child may have been infected before travelling to Langkawi and further investigation, as well as close contact tracing, was ongoing.

"The RTK-Antigen saliva test carried out on the child's parents at KLIA2 prior to departing for Langkawi was confirmed to be negative. The child also did not have any symptoms prior to the journey and during the health screening at KLIA2," he said.

-- BERNAMA