Govt plans to impose more stringent SOP on foreign workers — Ismail Sabri

KUALA LUMPUR: The government plans to implement more stringent standard operating procedures (SOP) for foreign workers, as well as extend the swab test requirement on those in the industrial sector, in efforts to curb Covid-19 spread in the country.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said currently the government is waiting for a proposal on the matter from the Human Resources Ministry.

“We are in the midst of conducting a detailed study...to date there are about 1.7million foreign workers in Malaysia and with such a large number, we are considering of the laboratories’ capability in producing the results and who should bear the costs if we were to conduct the swab test on them.

“I was informed that over a million of the foreign workers contribute to the Social Security Organisation (Socso),” he told a press conference on the development of the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) here yesterday.

On Sunday, Health directorgeneral Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was reported as saying the cluster that has recorded the highest number of cases was the Damanlela Construction Site cluster in Kuala Lumpur, with 460 cases.

As such Ismail Sabri said the Human Resources Ministry was told to provide detailed recommendations on measures to eliminate the virus transmission among foreign workers.

“We are aware of their living conditions where up to 30 people are cramped in one house, putting them at risk of COVID-19 transmission. So we are looking at ways to reduce infectivity and top of the list is to impose screening requirements to get them tested.

“Secondly, even if we restrict their movement they will continue to go out to buy goods or visit the restaurants leading to the spread of the virus. So apart from the swab test, we need to control their movement to prevent them from infecting others,” he said.