SEBERANG PERAI, May 17 — The Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) has set up barbed wire at six wet market complexes to ensure that the public only use the designated entrance and exits of the complexes, said the MBSP Mayor Datuk Rozali Mohamud.

He said the market complexes had many entrances due to their open plan design and despite sealing off the entrances, people still used these instead of the designated entrance.

He said market-goers must use the designated entrance as they need to register with the MySejahtera app and have their temperature taken before entering.

"The other entrances do not have this and we find people still using those side entrances so we have to put barbed wire to stop them from doing this,” he said during a surprise spot check at the Bagan Ajam market.

The six markets to have barbed wire installed at its side entrances are the Kepala Batas market, Bagan Ajam market, Taman Selamat market, Taman Berjaya market, Tambun Indah market and Sri Uda market.

A portion of the Bagan Ajam market, involving 64 traders, has been closed for sanitisation works since May 12 after several traders tested positive for Covid-19, he added.

He said the hawker and pork sections were closed between May 12 and 14 while the whole market complex was closed between May 13 and 15.

"The market is allowed to reopen but the hawker and pork sections have to remain closed until May 17 as the traders in this section have to undergo Covid-19 swab tests,” he said.

He said the Health Ministry has listed 38 traders in the section that must undergo the swab test and 21 have already come forward to be tested.

"The remaining 17 failed to turn up to be tested but maybe they went to get swabbed at private clinics,” he said.

He said traders who tested negative will be allowed to reopen their stalls at the market while those who have not been swabbed will not be allowed to do business until they provide results of their swab tests.

"I will be having a meeting later to decide on whether to extend the closure of that section in Bagan Ajam or to allow them to reopen tomorrow,” he said.

Earlier, local government committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said there was a new Jalan Terbilang cluster with cases in the Bagan Ajam market.

"There were overall 71 cases in Seberang Perai Tengah and Seberang Perai Utara since May 12 so this market and SPT are the areas under close monitoring in the health ministry’s list,” he said.

He said it is important for everyone to comply with the SOPs to stop the spread of the virus and that the authorities will not hesitate to close any premises with positive cases.