Not only that, a check by FMT at the district health office in Petaling Jaya this morning found that children and the elderly were also not observing the safe physical distancing protocol under the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).

They were openly breaching the minimum one-metre distance from each other. Some were also not wearing their face masks properly, giving rise to concerns of a higher risk of infection.

Speaking to FMT, parents who accompanied their children were worried about the walk-in system, saying they should be given time slots to avoid people from queuing up for long hours close to each other under the hot sun.

A parent, who declined to be named, said this showed that the health office was managing this process poorly.

“My son is one of the close contacts of a Covid-19 patient at his school. He has been in quarantine for so long but now he has to be exposed to another gathering that can result in a new cluster.”

He said time slots were preferable instead of this “first come, first served” system.

“What is the point of coming here early in the morning just to queue up under the hot sun for hours? This is total inefficiency.”

He claimed that those from outside the Petaling Jaya district were also instructed to come here, making matters worse.

“There are also people from Semenyih and Klang queueing up here. This is ridiculous.”

Another parent, who gave her name as Nur Maimun, said she was surprised to see the long queues around the health office building.

“I arrived here with my son not too long ago. I am not sure how long I need to queue because there are others here who have been waiting since 8am.” she said.

Another person, Mohd Azlan, said he had been waiting for more than three hours and hoped someone will introduce a better system of controlling the crowd.

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