Govt mulls screening foreign workers every 2 weeks

The government is considering screening foreign workers for Covid-19 every two weeks, Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

He said the government’s priority now is to carry out the mandatory health screening of foreign workers in states placed under conditional movement control order (CMCO).

“We will start carrying out swab tests on all foreign workers (in CMCO states). If they are negative, we will quarantine them. If positive, we will send them to the hospital.

“If there is a need to carry out swab tests once every two weeks, we will discuss it. For this first round (involving) 1.7 million (foreign workers), we will finish screening them first,” he said at a press conference.

Ismail previously said that health screening would be mandatory for all foreign workers in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Labuan using the antigen rapid test kit.

He said this was crucial to reducing the risk of Covid-19 infectivity among them.

On a separate issue, he said the CMCO in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya scheduled to end on Dec 6 might be extended if there is an increase in Covid-19 cases in these areas.

He said the matter would be decided after the health ministry had conducted a risk assessment.

“We will announce this (whether the CMCO will be extended) based on the risk assessment done by the ministry in the last week before Dec 6,” he said.