ALOR SETAR: A total of 1,494 school students aged between seven and 18 in Kedah tested positive for Covid-19 during the first 23 days of this month.
State Health Department director Dr Othman Warijo said from the total, 99.9 per cent or 1,493 students were classified as either asymptomatic (Category 1) or having displayed mild symptoms (Category 2).
He said only one of the students was classified under Category Three, requiring hospitalisation, but have since recovered from the virus.
"From the total 1,494 reported cases, 579 cases or 38.8 per cent have recovered while the remaining 915 cases or 61.2 per cent are still in the recovery process.
"None of them suffered severe symptoms that required admission into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)," he said when contacted today.
He added that all positive cases involved virus transmissions within school clusters and also within the community.
Meanwhile, state Education, Religious and Human Resources Committee chairman Datuk Najmi Ahmad said 15 schools have been ordered to shut temporarily following Covid-19 infections recorded between Jan 1 and Jan 23.
He said of 13 were boarding schools while the other two were day schools, with eight of them declared as Covid-19 clusters.
"Besides students, 25 teachers had also tested positive for the virus," Najmi told reporters after attending the SPM 2021 enhancement programme at Wisma Darul Aman here today.
Also present was state Education Department director Rozaini Ahmad.
Najmi said although the situation is under control, they are not ruling out the possibility of more schools being temporarily shut down, depending on the situation.
"We wish to advise school administrators on the importance of ensuring that all SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) are strictly observed, in particular in school hostels, to prevent the Covid-19 spread," he said.
On a related development, Rozaini the number of school teachers in Kedah who have yet to receive their Covid-19 vaccination remained at 162, out of a total of 30,400 teachers in the state.
He said the teachers were still attending schools but they were not allowed to conduct face-to-face teaching session with the students.
"They are still carrying out their duties in preparing education modules while teaching through online classes.
"At the same time, we will continue to advise and persuade the teachers concerned to get their Covid-19 vaccination as stipulated in the education sector SOP," he said.
Rozaini added that among the reasons stated by the teachers were health issues while some said they were not ready to get the vaccination jabs.