OUTSIDE contact is to be blamed for Covid-19 infections among migrant workers, not because employers did not follow standard operating procedure, said senior minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

“In most of the cases, it is not the fault of the employers. For instance in Pedas, Negri Sembilan, the infections happened in a chicken processing factory. An outsider who had come to the factory spread the virus there.

“Cases in hospitals too, the virus was not spread from patients in the hospitals but from a wedding ceremony attended by hospital staff.

“The same goes in the Setia Alam cluster, where the construction company had followed the SOP but outsiders with the virus had come to the site and infected the others,” Ismail Sabri said during his daily press conference in Putrajaya.

He said the government will also plan how to identify migrant workers who have undergone Covid-19 tests.

Ismail Sabri said migrant workers who have been tested negative were given a letter from the hospital.

“Those who are free from the virus are given a letter from the hospital. They will carry this letter and they will produce this letter when they are stopped.

“For those who are positive, they are brought to hospitals of course. The government will discuss with the Human Resource Ministry on how we can identify those who had been cleared.

“Maybe the company can create a special ID,” he said.

Experts have urged Putrajaya to give a one-year amnesty for undocumented migrants to come forward and get tested for the coronavirus.

Current measures, such as arresting undocumented migrants or getting foreign workers to pay for their own tests, are self-defeating and would drive them further away, they told The Malaysian Insight. – May 11, 2020.