SEBERANG PERAI, July 28 — The Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) will reopen its branch office on Jalan Betek in Bukit Mertajam tomorrow after 18 staff caught Covid-19 forcing it to close for five days.
MBSP Mayor Datuk Rozali Mohamud said the 18 staff are still under quarantine, while 31 of their close contacts have tested negative but were ordered to self-quarantine at home.
“The 31 staff have been ordered to work from home until they complete their quarantine period while the positive cases will be in quarantine until they recover,” he said during a press conference today.
He said the 31 staff are also wearing the quarantine pink bands and will be isolated at home for a period of 10 days.
He said the city council has extended any assistance in terms of food and medication to the positive cases.
Out of the 18 positive cases, he said 17 were quarantined at home while one was sent to the Jawi Quarantine Centre on July 27.
He said MBSP will thoroughly sanitise its branch office on Jalan Betek today before reopening it tomorrow and only staff who were not in close contact with the positive cases will be on duty.
The branch office was ordered to close on July 23 by the Central Seberang Perai district health office.
Following its closure, all of the branch office’s staff have been working from home.
Rozali also issued a warning to all MBSP staff to register for the Covid-19 vaccination through their MySejahtera app.
“There are 800 MBSP staff who have not registered for the vaccination,” he said.
He said those who refuse to register without any valid reasons will only be allowed to work in the office.
“They will not be allowed to work overtime,” he said.
He said if the number of Covid-19 cases among MBSP frontline staff were to increase, he would have to issue an order to stop them from venturing into the field.
“This will impact our services such as rubbish collection which can only be conducted twice a week compared to thrice a week now and the number of workers at the markets would have to be reduced,” he said.
Rozali said MBSP is now holding consultation sessions with the workers who have not registered for the Covid-19 vaccination.
MBSP has a total of 4,015 staff and as of July, a total of 1,297 staff or 32.2 per cent have been vaccinated.
A total of 1,540 staff or 38.3 per cent have registered but are still awaiting appointment dates.
“The remaining 378 who have registered on MySejahtera have obtained their vaccination dates,” he said.
He hoped the government will speed up the vaccination rate for MBSP frontliners as those working in the field such as the rubbish collectors and the workers in the public markets, are outside most of the time.
Meanwhile, Rozali said a large number of ratepayers have switched to online payment as MBSP recorded 215,472 online transactions which is 67.02 per cent of its overall transactions as of June this year.
“This is high compared to 106,043 transactions or 32.98 per cent transactions at the physical counters,” he said.
He reminded all residents in Seberang Perai that there is now a lucky draw for ratepayers who pay their assessment rates online between July and August.
The lucky draw prizes are cash prizes ranging from RM1,000 to RM8,888 for the grand prize.
