EXPANDING the mandatory Covid-19 screening rule to include local employees may not be feasible because of limited resources, said health experts.

Workplace clusters have been dominating the Covid-19 daily tally of late and Putrajaya has made screening of foreign workers compulsory.

As of Monday, there have been 508 clusters related to workplaces. New workplace clusters are emerging on a daily basis.

Deputy human resources minister Awang Hashim told The Malaysian Insight the ministry’s focus now is on the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 (Act 446) that governs accommodation.

Screening, which comes under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, also known as Act 342, is under the purview of the Health Ministry.

“The government will screen all foreign workers and local employees,” Awang said.

He, however, did not explain whether there are plans to make screening mandatory for local employees.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Assoc Prof Dr Malina Osman said regular screening at workplaces is only possible if resources are unlimited.

“The best way to prevent this is to have proper compliance to the SOP (standard operating procedure) and its enforcement to be done strictly,” she said.

“If we have unlimited resources, we can have regular screening among the staff, similar to the continuous surveillance carried out at certain organisations.

“But at the moment, screening is still at the high side, it can be done based on risk assessment namely according to observation on poor compliance to the SOP.”

Epidemiologist Prof Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud of Universiti Malaya said making screening mandatory for Malaysian workers is not logistically feasible due to the large numbers.

“We would not be able to cope with the number of tests required. If we use current capacities to test 70,000 per day, it will take three months to complete one round of tests for six million workers.

“Even if the number of tests were to be increased to 200,000 per day from the current 70,000, it would take a month to cover six million workers by which time the first workers who were tested could have been infected.

“So mass testing is not logistically feasible under current capacities to test. It would also be expensive as the current government capacity is only 30,000 tests per day meaning the rest must come from the private sector where costs will be much higher,” Awang Bulgiba said.

A thorough analysis on clusters will be required to identify the risk factors at workplaces, he said. This will allow stakeholders to come up with innovative strategies to prevent more clusters.

This cluster specific analysis should go beyond just reporting numbers.

“There must be cross-cluster analysis, too, as clusters are linked to living quarters and other factors. There does not appear to be much analysis being done on the current clusters.

“The Health Ministry can enlist universities to do the analysis, if it does not have the capacity.

“Action is finally being taken to address the living conditions of workers, something that I had been harping about since May 2020 as I saw this coming.

“However, this will take time and a lot of money. So one needs to be innovative to make this work when there isn’t much money,” the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry’s Covid-19 epidemiological analysis and strategies task force chairman said.

The government should also devise a long-term plan to transform the economy to be more pandemic resilient, he said.

This includes transitioning to a knowledge-based economy by turning to robotics and automation and reducing dependence on foreign labour.

Apart from that, the economy needs to be less commodities-based while more emphasis must be given to value-added hi-tech industries.

“The problem is once this pandemic is over, none of this will be remembered and people will go back to the lowest-cost economy rather than a more pandemic-resilient economy which is more costly but has the potential to have higher returns and is more resilient.”

Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan said in December employers are required to ensure their foreign workers are screened for Covid-19 starting January 1.

The employer is to bear the cost of testing. – February 10, 2021.