Practise extra caution in receiving, sharing news — Rep
KUCHING: It is confirmed that Emart Matang and its staff are free from tuberculosis and as such, claims suggesting otherwise are regarded as false statements, says Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei.
In this regard, he calls upon every member of the public to always be vigilant when it comes to the sharing of any statement and its sources.
“There have been some claims about Emart Matang being a dangerous place for people to visit, as you could contract tuberculosis here.
“This, of course, has been refuted.
“Nowadays with the power of social media, statements and news are easily spread. We, as a society, need to be cautious and alert with what is being disseminated, as sometimes these statements are misconstrued. We should always try to look into the sources of the news,” he spoke during a health talk on tuberculosis at Emart Matang here yesterday.
Earlier in his remarks, Emart Group of Companies assistant manager (group marketing) Alan Bong said the Sarawak Health Department had given them ‘a clean bill of health’.
“( Total of) 153 Emart Matang employees have gone for health screening, and all of them are confirmed (to be) tubeculosisfree. The claim about two staff members having contracted the disease is misleading.
“One is a former employee who contracted the disease after resigning, while the other has a medical record related to tuberculosis but is not found to be infected by the disease,” Bong said.
He also refuted another claim that an Emart employee had succumbed to tuberculosis.
“This said information, ( spoken) in Hakka Chinese dialect, has been spread around via WhatsApp voice note message – this is not true,” he said.
Kuching Division Health Office tuberculosis control programme head Dr Mirunaalena Selvaraju, Emart Group of Companies general manager Ling Tien Beng and Nestle Products Sdn Bhd field sales manager Jimmy Ngui also attended the talk.
Prior to the session, a free health screening was jointly conducted by by Sarawak Health Department and Normah Medical Specialist Centre.