PUTRAJAYA (May 5): In line with its targeted approach for Covid-19 testing, the Ministry of Health (MoH) will continue to focus on foreign workers who are categorised as one of the high-risk groups, especially in red zone areas in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

MoH director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry will carry on with its targeted approach based on localities within the foreign workers’ communities to ensure that they are being tested for Covid-19. 

Noor Hisham highlighted that out of the 30 new Covid-19 cases reported today, 24 were among foreign workers and the remaining six were locally transmitted infections from the KL Wholesale Market. 

"Our target for high-risk groups, we will mainly focus on foreign workers," he added. 

"So our policy now is actually to make sure that we screen them (foreign workers). We will look into the targeted area in terms of the locality and if we can actually identify them, we will screen them. We also encourage employers to do screenings [for] their foreign workers," he said during his daily Covid-19 press briefings today. 

Previously, the targeted or high-risk groups were attendees of the Sri Petaling Tabligh gathering — which remains the largest Covid-19 cluster to date — and those from tahfiz schools.

Concerns over the spread of infections among foreign workers were raised following the imposition of the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in several parts of the capital city where foreign workers’ living quarters were present such as Selangor Mansion and Malayan Mansion. 

The concerns were also reinforced following the high Covid-19 incidence rate among migrant workers in neighbouring Singapore, especially in dormitories. 

On Sunday, the ministry announced that it had detected a new cluster with 28 confirmed Covid-19 infections among construction workers in Ampang, which led to further pressure to screen foreign workers nationwide. 

Although the EMCO at the Malayan Mansion and Selangor Mansion buildings, as well as in the Masjid India area, had ended on Sunday, Noor Hisham said yesterday that the ministry will continue to monitor these downtown areas for a possible spike in Covid-19 cases. 

As of Saturday, the MoH has tested about 3,300 migrant workers in these areas, of which 586 were undocumented and have been removed from the community.

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