KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Karex Bhd said 35 of its employees have tested positive for Covid-19, out of 2,000 that had been screened for the virus.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the condom manufacturer said 28 cases were discovered from screening conducted at its catheter facility located in Pontian, Johor on Dec 16.

The remaining seven, it said, were isolated cases found in its two other condom factories.

"Karex wishes to inform that commencing Nov 23, 2020, we have decided to voluntarily conduct Covid-19 screening for our employees, both local and foreign, across all of our facilities in Malaysia.

"We wish to inform that, to date, we have completed routine screening of over 2,000 of our employees and have discovered a total of 35 positive cases. We will continue to conduct screening across all of our facilities and provide updates on the matter," said the group.

Karex said the affected catheter facility is closed temporarily for disinfection and sanitisation processes and is expected to resume operations in stages beginning Dec 25.

"We immediately notified the Ministry of Health (MoH) and have worked with them to identify close contacts of our affected employees as well as to ensure that our affected employees were provided proper medical care and placed in quarantine for subsequent screening.

"Karex will continue to adhere to the standard operating procedures as directed by the National Security Council and the MoH in order to ensure the necessary safeguards are in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and to ensure that our employees are provided a safe and healthy working environment," it added.

Karex's share price closed 1.5 sen or 1.82% lower at 81 sen, bringing a market capitalisation of RM811.92 million. A total of 1.23 million shares changed hands.