KUCHING: Tenants at Emart Matang are worried about their businesses because the public are afraid to patronise the place following reports that tuberculosis (TB) has been detected among some of the employees.
Yet according to a February 28 statement by Sarawak Health Department director, Dr Jamilah Hashim, the two Emart Matang employees concerned have tested negative, meaning that the disease was dormant and not contagious.
After the TB cases went viral on social media, there has been a noticeable decrease in customer traffic at the shopping mall. A Ronnie Optic supervisor, Awang Ismail, noticed that fewer customers have visited the mall following the news about the TB.
“It is good that the public are alert to certain issues, but sometimes people don’t follow up on the news, which is a problem for business organisations like ours,” he said.
He wished that the public are aware of the negative side of social media and wanted them to be wary of fake news.
“Good news going viral is good, but fake news can also go viral,” he said.
He observed that after the TB cases went viral, the public who once flooded Emart Matang have gone elsewhere.
“Usually on weekends, the place was crowded with customers from throughout Kuching, but as people got the bad news they began to stay away,” he said.
He believed that the tenants at Emart Matang should be prepared for such negative collective response because it is normal for people to be afraid.
“The management need to be pro-active and quick to mitigate the negativity to minimise public fears and to work with the authorities to convince people that our premises are safe,” said Awang Ismail.
He thought that if customers see the positive attitude of the traders, and once they are confident that measures have been taken to secure the general area, they would quickly stop being afraid to patronise Emart Matang.
A worker at Taka E-mart Matang, Aireen, also observed that the public have reacted negatively to the TB cases, which have impacted the businesses adversely.
“Usually on weekends, this place is full of customers, but once the news about the disease broke out, many customers got scared and have been staying away.
“I am glad that it has been confirmed that the two Emart employees who allegedly got the disease have tested negative,” she said.
“Nowadays many people get information from social media, but they don’t always follow the news to their conclusions. They know the beginning but not the end. Maybe this is because social media always highlight negative news.”
TB sufferers usually transmit the viruses through the air when they cough, talk or sneeze. The symptoms begin with coughing for two weeks followed by lack of appetite, malnutrition, fever and then coughing blood.
