KUALA LUMPUR (April 19): Nineteen schools in Selangor's Petaling district have been ordered to be temporarily closed from tomorrow for disinfection and close contact tracing of both students and teaches, after several Covid-19 cases were detected.

The Petaling District Health Office, in a circular today, said Covid-19 clusters were found in these school, thus necessitating their closure. Reopening of the schools will be announced two days before the reopening.

The affected schools include SAM Bestari Subang and SMK Puchong Utama 1 which had four postive cases each, and SK USJ 20 and SMK USJ 23 which had two cases each.

The other 15 schools had one case each. They are SMK Bukit Jelutong, SK Puchong Perdana, SK Bandar Baru Sri Damansara 2, SK Bukit Kuchai, SMK Bandar Sri Damansara 2, SK Bandar Sri Damansara 3, SJKC Yuk Chai, SMK Damansara Jaya, SK Bukit Jelutong, SMK Seksyen 7, SMK Puching, SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara, SMK Bandar Puncak Jalil, SMK Seksyen 20, and SMK Puchong Perdana.

The circular said the affected schools must carry out disinfection and ensure all close contacts of the positive cases undergo quarantine.

In its daily Covid-19 update, the Ministry of Health announced six clusters involving education centres, but none of them were in Selangor.

The education centre clusters were Tangok (Kelantan), Pulai Chondong (Kelantan), Jalan Tagasan (Sabah), Jalan Medan Aliff (Johor), Jalan Weng (Kedah) and one from  a school/education institution in Jalan Hospital (Kelantan).

Total new cases in the country dropped slightly to 2,078 today, from 2,195 cases yesterday. Sarawak accounted for 589 new cases today, while Selangor recorded 457 cases.