JOHOR BARU, Oct 30 — The Johor Baru city centre and its entire district have been declared as a Covid-19 red zone after recording a spike in cases yesterday.

This was after it recorded more than 40 Covid-19 positive cases in the past 14 days.

Johor Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said monitoring and surveillance efforts would be actively increased to contain the spread of the virus.

He said most cases in the district involved transmission of the Covid-19 disease among family members and from workplaces.

"The Johor health department has placed the institutions and individuals involved under home surveillance order.

"Infections within the family are worrying when family members do not comply with the standard operating procedure (SOP) inside the house as it is practised outside,” said Vidyananthan in a statement issued here today.

However, Vidyananthan said the situation in the state is still under control and urged everyone to be calm and not to create panic by spreading false information.

"At present, three clusters that have been identified in the state are the Kempas Cluster, Rinting Cluster and Bayu Cluster,” he said.

According to Vidyananthan, until October 29, the cumulative cases for the Kempas Cluster were at 42 cases involving eight colleagues, 17 of their family members, 11 colleagues of their family members, five students and one of the student’s family members.

"For the Rinting Cluster, the cumulative case for this cluster was at 10 cases involving two employees, six family members and two friends to children.

"Meanwhile, the Bayu Cluster recorded a cumulative of eight cases involving three colleagues and five members of their family,” said Vidyananthan, who is also the Kahang assemblyman.

In this regard, he reminded the public to always comply with the SOP set to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections.