Malaysian employers urged to play a bigger role to contain spread among non-Malaysian workers

In his daily advisory on 3 June, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director General of Health Malaysia, has urged employers to play a bigger role in curbing COVID-19 transmission among non-Malaysian workers. 

"Workers are valuable assets to any company or organisation. This includes both Malaysian and non-Malaysian workers. A good employer is an employer who always ensures the welfare and well-being of their workers," he said.

He added: "As COVID-19 transmission among non-Malaysian workers is an important issue that needs to be addressed, MOH urges all employers to play a bigger role in addressing this."

There are several factors that contribute to the spread of communicable diseases among workers, such as issues of living quarters, personal hygiene as well as the environmental hygiene at home and at work, as shared by Ministry of Health of Malaysia previously. 

To this end, he urged employers to take the following actions:

• Educate workers on good personal hygiene practices, work and home environmental hygiene, and other preventive measures.
• Provide conducive living quarters to ensure safe social distancing can be practiced.
• Monitor and ensure that infection prevention measures are practiced by the workers at their workplaces and living quarters.
• Screen non-Malaysian workers for COVID-19 (especially in the construction and safety sector) in all Red Zones, as directed by the Government. In addition, non-Malaysian workers from the Yellow and Green Zones are encouraged to be screened on the initiative of their respective employers.

As of 3 June, Malaysia saw a total of 93 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases, making it a cumulative 7,970 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 1,324 are active and infective COVID-19 cases. 

In additional COVID-19 news from Malaysia, Dr Noor Hisham said the country will be ready to roll out its exit strategy phase once the number of daily new cases drops below the current double-digit trend, as reported by New Straits Times.

This, he said, would be a prerequisite for more sectors to resume their operations, albeit with stricter standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place, stressing the need for existing SOPs to be followed even after more sectors were allowed to operate.

"If we are able to uphold our monitoring and continue to reduce the number of cases to a two- and single-digit figure, then that is when we will be ready to roll out the exit strategy.

"This is what we consider as a soft landing, and Malaysians have been showing model behaviour by adhering to the COVID-19 SOPs."

Image / MOH Malaysia