JOHOR BARU, April 21 — The Johor government has taken proactive measures to screen Kulai’s Rohingya community for Covid-19 in response to recent allegations of an outbreak in the area.

Johor Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said this came after social media postings on a possible Covid-19 outbreak involving the Rohingya community at Lorong Kulai Besar in Kulai.

He said the state government took a serious view of the situation and immediately took preventive steps.

“For your information, as of April 19, a 100 per cent screening was conducted in the area where the health authorities tested 659 Rohingya residents.

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“Of the figure, about 13 positive cases have been recorded while 396 tested negative. Another 250 are still waiting for their results,” said Vidyananthan in the state government’s Covid-19 update today.

Vidyananthan said that other residents living in the area were also screened.

“The government also enforced a tighter security presence at Lorong Kulai Besar with the police stationed round-the-clock.

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“Besides that, a public sanitation operation was also carried out twice in the area on April 2 and yesterday, involving the Fire and Rescue Department, Johor Health Department, Kulai Municipal Council, Southern Waste Management, SWCorp and the police,” said Vidyananthan, who is also the Kahang assemblyman.

However, Vidyananthan said the efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 will not be successful without the cooperation of the community itself.

“Besides adhering to the movement control order (MCO), the residents in that area should also practise good personal hygiene and also keep their living conditions and business premises clean in order to not only prevent the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, but also other infections,” he said.