The Malaysian Insight

INFECTED undocumented workers were a “blind spot” that the government had missed when managing the Covid-19 pandemic, said Khairy Jamaluddin.

The health minister said it was a serious issue that would have to be re-examined.

“Although, the current policy is for employers to isolate their workers if they have none or light symptoms, it’s unclear whether it is done or not,” he told Dewan Rakyat today.

“This is a serious issue and one of our blind spots that have allowed more transmissions,” the Rembau MP added.

“There should not be any more workplace clusters but we are still reporting them as they come up in living quarters.”

Khairy was responding to Charles Santiago (Klang-PH) during his winding-up speech on the ministry today.

Earlier, Santiago had asked how the ministry planned on tackling home quarantine issues involving undocumented workers.

“Are we monitoring the employers enough? Cause these workers live together and, if not monitored, will go back to the factories and infect Malaysian workers,” said Santiago.

Malaysia saw a surge in Covid-19 infections and workplace clusters in July after the Perikatan Nasional government began relaxing lockdown restrictions for the manufacturing sector.

In June, Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shaari said that 91% of the total number of clusters in the country’s biggest manufacturing state were workplace-related.

Of this, 80% came from factories while 11% came from construction sites. – September 23, 2021.