KUALA LUMPUR: Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has called on all foreign workers at risk of Covid-19 infection to come forward to be screened.
Even foreigners whose work permits or social visit passes have expired must come forward to be screened if they are at risk, he stressed.
“Our focus is to ensure that they are not infected and that they do not infect others,” Dr Noor Hisham added.
Meanwhile, he said acute case detection has been conducted at Pusat Bandar Utara and around the Selayang Wholesale Market, with 2,064 samples taken and 28 positive cases detected.
Both areas, which have a high foreign worker population, have been placed under an Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO).
There has been one Covid-19 death in Selayang – a 36-year-old Myanmar national who was treated at Selayang Hospital.
He arrived at the hospital at stage 4 of the disease and had to be intubated, but eventually died.
Due to this, the ministry is enhancing its efforts in those areas and targeting all high risk groups, which has also led to the EMCO being enforced there.
Referring to Singapore, which is grappling with a jump in infections among foreign workers, Dr Noor Hisham said we can learn from the neighbouring country and Malaysia hopes to control positive cases among non-citizens here.
The Selangor Mansion and Malayan Mansion, two locations also under EMCO in Kuala Lumpur, are places with a high concentration of foreign workers.