By Khairul Azran Hussin
SHAH ALAM, Nov 4 — The Selangor government has allocated almost RM3 million to implement two phases of the mass Covid-19 Community Screening in its bid to break the chain of infection.
State Public Health, Unity, Women Empowerment and Family Committee chairman Dr Mariah Mahmud said RM1.6 million was spent for the first phase of the screenings in March and April while another RM1.36 million for the second phase, which started in August and is still ongoing.
“Through the first phase, a total of 5,433 individuals were screened and 10 positive cases were detected. A total of 912 people were tested so far in the second phase.
“Phase two of the mass testing is ongoing, targeting the people in the state who returned from Sabah and high-risk areas,” she said during the Selangor Legislative Assembly sitting here today.
Dr Siti Mariah was answering a question from Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lim Yi Wei on the cost of the Covid-19 Community Screening programme and the number of people who participated in the initiative.
In response to Lim’s additional question on the state’s latest action following the recent surge in new cases, Dr Siti Mariah said the state government is also focusing on the frontliners.
“We are in the process of conducting targeted screening involving the army, police, Rela personnel, security guards and cleaning workers.
“They are a high-risk group that is prone to infection. We have to make sure that these people are free of Covid-19 because their job requires them to always be in the community,” she said.
