COVID-19: Penang wants intensified screening for factory workers
GEORGE TOWN, Jan 23 -- The Penang government hopes that COVID-19 screening on factory workers, whether locals or non-Malaysians, will be intensified to facilitate contact tracing and treatment in order to break the pandemic chain among the people in the state.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said according to data from the state Health Department as of Jan 20, only 19,792 out of 128,889 foreign workers registered under the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) have undergone the COVID-19 screening.
“During the same period, 13,336 foreign workers were screened on employers’ own initiative, taking the total number of screened foreign workers to 33,128 people. This brings the infection rate to 3.22 per cent. Therefore, proactive action needs to be taken at this time,” he said in a statement today.
Chow said the same data also showed that 49 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the working sectors came from factory and industry workers, construction workers (three per cent), other fields and unemployed (30 per cent).
“Therefore, we want to see the federal government who was given the Emergency powers to increase the assets and manpower to effectively contain COVID-19 transmission among the Penang people,” he said.
-- BERNAMA
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