Covid-19 testing was conducted at SK Permatang Janggus in Penaga, Kepala Batas, Kedah after a teacher was declared Covid-19 positive. The school will be closed for eight days, beginning today. - Photo by NUR IZZATI MOHAMAD/NSTP
Covid-19 testing was conducted at SK Permatang Janggus in Penaga, Kepala Batas, Kedah after a teacher was declared Covid-19 positive. The school will be closed for eight days, beginning today. - Photo by NUR IZZATI MOHAMAD/NSTP

KEPALA BATAS: SK Permatang Janggus in Penaga here will be closed for eight days, beginning today after a teacher contracted Covid-19.

The order was issued by the state Education Department.

Its director Abdul Rashid Abdul Samad said the eight-day closure was to break the chain of the infection.

"For now, the school will be closed for eight days. Any further decision will be made after our meeting with the Health Ministry.

"We have yet to receive the full report from the school but we have been told that all students had to undergo the Covid-19 screening test today," he said.

Meanwhile, checks outside the school showed parents and guardians anxiously waiting for their children to undergo the test.

They were at the school after receiving a message via WhatsApp, that their child had to undergo the screening.

This was after the female teacher, in her 40s, was confirmed to be infected by Covid-19.

It was reported that the teacher was unwell while at school and had sought treatment at a hospital in Kedah.

She is believed to be the wife of a politician from Kedah, who had gone for campaigning, during the recent Sabah state election.

About 60 pupils at the school were screened and told to observe home quarantine while awaiting the results.

Altogether, Penang recorded 144 positive Covid-19 cases, including two deaths.

There were five active cases remaining.