THE Health Ministry reported that a staggering 147,040 Covid-19 cases have been traced from 1,328 workplace clusters as of today.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that most of the positive cases from the workplaces involved foreigners, with manufacturing sectors contributing the bulk of the cases.

“Most of the positive cases reported in workplace clusters consist of non-Malaysian citizens, which accounts to 100,086 cases (68%) compared to Malaysian citizens, which reported 46,954 cases (32%).

“The manufacturing sector reported the highest number of cases in the workplace cluster category, with 95,156 cases involving 639 clusters,” he said in a statement today.

Noor Hisham said despite the weekly case trend in Malaysia showing a decline in the last two weeks, workplace clusters continued to contribute to the addition of new clusters in the country.

He said among the current active clusters reporting a high number of cases, four of them were factories.

Jalan Tiga Salak Tinggi in Selangor has reported 873 cases, followed by Industry Senawang, which spreads over Negri Sembilan and Malacca, with 752 cases. The Industry Batu Berendam cluster in Malacca has 641 cases, Jalan Padang Tembok, Kelantan and Terengganu, has 598 cases. All these involved factories.

The sole cluster in the top five, which was not linked to factories, was Tok Has cluster in Terengganu, which was traced among restaurant workers, reported 541 cases.

Noor Hisham said continuous efforts by employers in conducting screening tests on employees are greatly appreciated as an initial step to curb the spread of infections in the workplace.

“The ministry has set various guidelines and SOP in the workplace, such as physical distancing, limiting the number of employees present at workplaces, and others.

“However, it was found that the level of awareness on the importance of the implementation of the SOP still needed to be increased.

“Society, especially employers and employees, need to realise that adherence to the guidelines is for their own good as well,” he said.

Noor Hisham said the SOP at workplaces should be further enhanced to curb the spread of the infection, especially at workplaces. – June 14, 2021.