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Dr Noor Hisham: Twelve out 17 Covid-19 clusters in Malaysia from workplace today

A health worker uses a swab to collect a sample for Covid-19 testing from a man in Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, January 18, 2021. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
A health worker uses a swab to collect a sample for Covid-19 testing from a man in Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, January 18, 2021. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Malaysia recorded 17 Covid-19 clusters today, out of which 12 were traced to the workplace.

Health director- general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today said that the percentage of workplace related clusters is continuing to increase despite the recent downward trend of new Covid-19 cases.

“Despite the fact that the weekly case trend in Malaysia has shown a decline in the last two weeks, workplace clusters continue to contribute to the increase of new clusters in Malaysia,” he said in a statement.

He said that a total 624,246 people in workplace related clusters have been screened since last year, with 147,040 of them testing positive for Covid-19 — yielding a “positivity rate” of 23.6 per cent.

The total number of workplace related clusters stands at 1,328 as of today.

“Most of the positive cases reported in the workplace cluster category consists of non-Malaysians, which is 100,086 cases (68 per cent), compared to Malaysian citizens that is 46,954 cases (32 per cent).

“The manufacturing sector reported the highest number of cases among workplace clusters, which is 95,156 cases involving 639 clusters,” read the statement.

He said that despite various guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place, the level of awareness about the importance of adhering to these regulations needed to be increased.

“There are also a handful of people in the community who only care about SOP compliance when there is law enforcement. It is this negligence that has led to an increase in Covid-19 cases, especially in the workplace.

“Therefore the Ministry of Health (MoH) is of the opinion that enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the workplace should be enhanced in an effort to further curb Covid-19 infections, particularly involving clusters in the workplace,” he added.

The 12 workplace related clusters today were found in Selangor (five), Johor (four), Kelantan (two), and Kuala Lumpur (one).

The remaining clusters reported today consisted of four “community” clusters and one “high-risk group” cluster, recorded across Sarawak, Kelantan, Perak and Negri Sembilan.

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