FOREIGN workers are now the Health Ministry’s latest target group for Covid-19 screening as they are more prone to contracting the virus due to living in close proximity together, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“The main problem is they often stay in one apartment in huge numbers. 

“And because they also work in different sectors, they easily infect one another (in another sector),” he said at his daily Covid-19 briefing in Putrajaya today.

He was explaining how foreign workers in the construction industry could have become infected with the coronavirus and why the ministry is now targeting the group.

Another cluster of infected foreign workers involves those who worked at the Selayang wholesale market.

“For instance, some of them living together were working in the construction industry and also the wholesale markets in Kuala Lumpur and Selayang.

“But for now, we are only targeting foreign workers in red zones in Klang Valley.”

He said there are no reports of foreign worker infections in green zones.

According to the latest data, 109 out of the 181 Covid-19 positive cases from the wholesale market cluster are foreigners. 

Similarly, 36 out of 52 cases in Selayang Baru, an area around the wholesale market, are also foreigners.

Noor Hisham said the ministry has tested 22,339 foreign workers, of which 986 were found positive for the coronavirus.

“Of this, 457 are still being treated while 525 have recovered. Four are currently in ICU and there have been four deaths among foreign nationalities,” he said. – May 6, 2020.