FOREIGN workers serving as security guards are required to be tested for coronavirus, said Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. 

The Home Ministry will announce the directive and procedural details shortly, he added.

“Security guards, especially those at shopping malls, come into contact with a lot of people. They are the ones conducting temperature checks for mall visitors,” he said at a daily briefing on the movement control order (MCO).

“It was decided today that all security guards who are foreigners will have to undergo compulsory swab tests.”

This appears to be a response to the emergence of a new Covid-19 cluster involving security personnel at a mall in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said nine Nepalis and a Malaysian were infected in the cluster.

Those infected are being treated and isolated, while their close contacts have been swabbed for tests. 

Malaysia is starting to see a drop in the number of Covid-19 cases, with number recoveries exceeding reported new infections everyday. 

However, more of the new infections involve foreign workers. Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this is a concern because foreign workers are usually housed in big groups.

On whether to heighten controls on areas where clusters have been detected, Ismail Sabri said that will depend on the advice of the Health Ministry. – May 8, 2020.