KOTA KINABALU, May 5 — Sabah cannot rely on testing of their hundreds of thousands of foreign workers should it be a prerequisite to resuming business, said Sabah health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.

Rundi said that hospitals in Sabah would be overwhelmed with demand if foreign worker testing was a prerequisite to allow businesses to reopen.

"We will not be able to cope if it’s done in all the hospitals because we also have our own clients,” she said.

"[With the private sector], in stages we will be able to do it, but as a prerequisite to opening, there’s going to be a problem,” she said when speaking to reporters here today.

She said that it would be more pertinent to implement precautionary standard operating procedure to ensure infectious diseases like Covid-19 do not spread through the workplace.

The pandemic is still on. It is not just about returning to work. Companies must carry out screenings in the workplace, maintain social distancing, wear face masks and use hand sanitisers as part of the standard operating procedure, especially for those providing counter services to the public,” she said.

Dr Rundi said the department was working with business owners and operations who were trying to reopen by putting into place SOPs.

Putrajaya’s Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday announced that it will be mandatory for foreign workers to be tested for Covid-19 screening following a spike in cases in West Malaysia.

Sabah Health and People’s Wellbeing Minister Frankie Poon had previously been reported saying that Sabah will not be able to carry out such tests on 100,000 over foreign workers in the state as there is only a limited supply of reagents available for PCR testing.

He said it was not feasible to insist on testing before resuming operations.

Meanwhile, on supply of test kits coming from West Malaysia, Dr Rundi said the state had not received the 150,000 rapid test kits from South Korea which was announced by Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah last week.

She said they were due to arrive later this week and that the state would have to prioritise the kits for emergency cases like those ill, needing surgeries and other in-house purposes.

"Given the amount, we still need to prioritise,” she said.