THE increasing number of workplace-related Covid-19 clusters is worrying, said Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Most of them are centred in factories, followed by construction sites, he said in a statement today.

As of yesterday, he said a total of 350 new clusters were detected and of them, 225 or 64.3% involved the workplace.

Of these workplace clusters, 80 are related to factories, 50 are construction clusters, and 31 involve service-related businesses.

“A total of 112,225 individuals have been screened in workplace-related clusters, of which 28,477 cases (25.4%) were detected Covid-19 positive,” he added.

The increasing numbers could be related to the higher number of tests conducted as well, he said.

Noor Hisham said since December 1, 2020, the government had been conducting tests on workers, including foreign workers. 

“Since December 1, 2020, the government has conducted Covid-19 screenings on foreign workers in the country. 

“In the early stages, this programme was concentrated in several states, namely, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Labuan,” he said. 

Noor Hisham urged all employers and employees to ensure that the standard operating procedure (SOP) at workplaces are followed.

Apart from the usual temperature and symptoms checks before entering the worksite, provision of hand sanitiser and frequent disinfection of common spaces, workers must also avoid being together in confined spaces and keep one metre apart from each other, even in conversation.

Malaysia had been detecting a high number of Covid-19 clusters that involved workplaces. Today another eight were reported, out of 11 new clusters.

The country also recorded its highest-ever number of new infections in a day at 4,275, taking the nation’s total caseload to 180,455 and active cases to 42,769. – January 23, 2021.