PUTRAJAYA, April 16 — Health authorities have not detected Covid-19 clusters involving migrant workers, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.
The Health director-general said district health offices (PKD) were still actively screening such group and the Health Ministry could focus on high-risk areas with large populations of foreign workers.
“The screening is ongoing together with our PKD. So far, as I said, we have not seen a cluster formation. It is a continuous process,” he said, referring to the screening activities.
“There are two groups and we are actually looking into it. One is the old folks’ home and this is exactly what happened in Singapore, and the foreign workers. So we have actually worked with the Welfare Department to look into how we can actually address and screen the old folks’ home and especially those crowded old folks’ homes,” he explained.
Dr Noor Hisham lamented that while MOH was actively trying to screen foreign workers for Covid-19, not all were coming forward.
He said the ministry has been working with several non-governmental groups and agencies such as Mercy Malaysia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to trace the foreign workers for screening.
“So far for example, in the Selayang Wholesale Market, we have screened 465 foreign workers and the positive rate that we have today is 13 cases, about three per cent.
“So we will continue to enhance our services in terms of screening and trace and track and test them and isolate and treat them as well,” Dr Noor Hisham added.
Singapore yesterday recorded a record 447 new Covid-19 cases, bringing its national tally to 3,699 cases, according to CNA.
CNA reported that of the new cases, 68 per cent were linked to previously identified clusters, while contact tracing was ongoing for remaining cases.
The report also said 404 of the new cases yesterday were from foreign worker dormitories, with five being work permit holders living outside the dormitories.
