Tested Kubang Pasu folk to get aid
Kedah govt urges villagers to get screened to receive food supply
ALOR SETAR: Only those in Kubang Pasu who have undergone the Covid-19 screening test will receive food supply from the state government.
State women, family and community development committee chairman Halimaton Shaadiah Saad said as of now, 700 heads of households in Kubang Pasu mainly from the Hosba, Binjal, Ah and Putat subdistricts had undergone screening for Covid-19.
She said the state government had allocated RM50,000 for the initial phase of the food distribution exercise.
“This doesn’t mean the state government is side-lining those who have been affected but merely to encourage more residents in the targeted enhanced movement control order (MCO) area to come forward to do the test.
“The food supply is meant for affected residents in the area which has been in lockdown since Aug 3 following the outbreak from the Sivagangga cluster.
“To prevent the worst outbreak, we need everyone to come forward and do the screening,” she said.
The Bukit Kayu Hitam assemblyman said among the items that were given to the affected residents were eggs, 2kg of sugar, canned food, biscuits, beverages, vermicelli and cooking oil.
She added that more food would be distributed to other districts under the targeted enhanced MCO next week.
“I will be distributing food items to 93 households in Padang Terap,” she said.
Halimaton said the food distribution programme would continue until the situation returned to normal and the targeted enhanced MCO was lifted.
Meanwhile in Kangar, Sanglang assemblyman Mohd Shukri Ramli said 872 residents of Kampung
Kuala Sanglang and Kampung Tanah Timbul were undergoing the Covid-19 test.
Shukri said that as of now, there were no indications from the government on the possibility of a lockdown of the district.
He, however, did not rule out the possibility if the number of positive cases there increased.
He advised residents to stay put in their homes and strictly follow standard operating procedures as instructed by the government.
“For those from outside Perlis, please put off your plans to come to the state until everything is improving,” he said.
On Friday, Perlis recorded 10 new cases of Covid-19 related to persons under investigation in the Sivagangga cluster in Napoh, Kubang Pasu, Kedah.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there was a possibility that the Sivagangga cluster was caused by a “superspreader” strain of Covid-19 originating from countries such as Egypt and India.