KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 ― Top Glove Corporation Berhad assured its consumers today that gloves manufactured by the company are not contaminated by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as it finds itself in the epicentre of a major Covid-19 cluster in recent weeks.
Its executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai also stressed that the factory production lines were all automated within a controlled environment and employees who do come into contact with the manufactured product are equipped with personal protection equipment (PPE).
“The answer is no contamination because our factory environment is quite warm whereby gloves are placed into hot ovens over 110 degrees Celsius above, so Covid-19 [pathogens] are unable to survive in there.
“Our factory employees wear PPE so there is no direct contact with gloves,” he said during a virtual press conference hosted on Zoom.
On the closure of its factories, managing director Datuk Lee Kim Meow said the company has already stopped operations in 20 factories within the Meru, Klang area while eight more are running at reduced capacity since November 17.
This he said would indubitably affect the shipments by at least two to three weeks, depending on the duration of the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) imposed on the factories and workers' dormitories after more than 3,000 of its workers tested positive for Covid-19.
Lim however expressed optimism despite the temporary closure of the factories, pointing out how the company has overseas factories in Thailand, Vietnam and China that are able to continue manufacturing its rubber disposable gloves as the situation gradually returns to normalcy.
Top Glove, the world’s largest manufacturer of rubber gloves, currently employs over 21,000 workers nationwide.
In Klang alone, it has 28 factories, which have become the epicentre of the Teratai cluster with a reported 4,036 Covid-19 cases up until November 24. Over 80 per cent of the infected are foreign workers.
On Monday, the National Security Council (NSC) ruled that Top Glove must close its 28 factories in stages after the highly infectious virus was found to have breached the workers’ lodgings and entered the community at large.
The NSC also announced today a task force consisting of local authorities and public health officials has been formed to oversee the screening and quarantine procedures of Top Glove Corporation Bhd’s factory employees.
