‘Theme park management must focus on social distancing’

Social distancing will be a major concern for the Health Ministry when water theme parks reopen tomorrow.

Its director-general, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said the park management must focus on social distancing while hygiene and cleanliness levels of the water should be enhanced.

To avoid congestion, he said, the theme parks should operate in the new normal and not resort to their usual operations.

“We advise the public and park operators to take precautionary measures and maintain a high level of hygiene. It is also very important for the public to maintain social distancing.

“The ministry’s concern is that there will be huge crowds when the parks reopen. As of now, we have limited the number of visitors to the parks and will not fully reopen them.

“We hope everyone who wants to visit the water theme park practises social distancing,” he said at the daily Covid-19 press conference yesterday.

On pool cleanliness, Dr Noor Hisham advised park operators to clean them often.

He said operators had been using chlorine to clean the water and it was not something new.

“We advise operators to enhance cleaning measures in the pool.”

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said three new positive Covid-19 cases were recorded up to noon yesterday, bringing the number of active cases to 182. Of the three cases, one was imported involving a Malaysian who got infected abroad.

“The two other cases were local transmissions involving Malaysians, with one detected in Selangor during a screening for a pre-treatment procedure for leukaemia, while another was in Sandakan, Sabah, during a screening at the workplace.

“There are now four patients being treated in the Intensive Care Unit and one has to be intubated,” he said.

With the three cases, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysia recorded 8,637 positive cases and no changes to the number of fatalities, which remained at 121.

On those who had recovered, he said 16 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative cases that had recovered to 8,334 nationwide.