THE first Covid-19 tests on the 20 Indonesian oil palm plantation workers who reportedly showed “initial symptoms” of the virus came back negative, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said in his daily coronavirus press conference in Kuching this afternoon.

Uggah, who also chairs the state Disaster Management Committee, said they will however be quarantined at the Institute for Rural Advancement (Infra) Sarawak campus, which has been turned into a quarantine centre, in Samarahan division

“We want to observe them during the next 14 days.”

He said they will all then undergo another battery of tests to ascertain if they are really negative and safe to be discharged.

The plantation workers, from the Sarawak Land Custody and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) plantation at Pakit Undop just outside the town of Simanggang, on Tuesday reported to their plantation manager they had fever, were coughing and some had breathing difficulty.

The plantation manager then reported the claims to the divisional disaster management operations room in Simanggang town, triggering a full-scale Covid-19 response procedure.

One of the migrant workers from Makassar, who had entered the state via the Tebedu customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) border crossing on March 12, was suspected to be infected.

The new worker had complained on March 18 of fever and cough after reporting for work.

They were all bused to the quarantine centre late Wednesday night.

The scare came a day after Uggah ordered all oil palm plantations and palm oil mills that are operating during the movement-control order (MCO) period to submit the names of their foreign workers to the state disaster management committee for health vetting.

Uggah, in a visit to the Bau Oil Palm (Bapom) mill, some 38km from Kuching, said of particular interest to him were those foreign workers returning to the state and work on March 12 and 13.

The majority of the state’s foreign workers in the oil palm industry are Indonesians, whose country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 2.

Uggah said the committee wants to vet the medical history of the workers to avert what had happened in neighbouring Sabah, where several palm oil plantations had to be shut as they had workers infected by the virus.

On Tuesday, Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal ordered several Felda oil palm plantations in Kinabatangan and Lahad Datu to cease operation, including harvesting, after many its foreign workers became infected after coming into contact with people in the Sri Petaling Mosque tabligh cluster. – March 27, 2020.