PUTRAJAYA, April 17 — The Health Ministry (MOH) is collaborating with a few non-governmental organisations (NGO) and other government agencies to conduct Covid-19 screening for residents of old folks homes and foreign workers.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said MOH is working with the Social Welfare Department (JKM) in screening residents of old folks homes, especially the crowded ones, as this age group is among the most vulnerable to the infection.
On foreign workers, he said agencies like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Medical Relief Society Malaysia (Mercy Malaysia) have stepped forward to help in efforts to trace and screen them.
“We realise that some of the foreign workers are not coming forward, so we have to work together with a few NGOs. We will continue to enhance our services in terms of screening, trace and track, test, isolate and treat them.
“So far we have not seen a cluster formation among foreign workers,” he told a daily media briefing on Covid-19 here yesterday.
He said the ministry had screened 465 foreign workers at the Pasar Borong Selayang and only three per cent or 13 of them tested positive for Covid-19.
The ministry would continue to monitor high-risk areas, especially where there is a big population of foreign workers, he added.
— Bernama
