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KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia is advising people who have tested positive for coronavirus but do not have Covid-19 symptoms to isolate themselves at home first, as cases involving foreign workers are on the rise.
These asymptomatic patients should be kept in contact with their district health offices.
The director general of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, said that these patients cannot be taken to hospitals immediately as the health system is overloaded, the Malay Mail online news reported on Monday (28 from December).
Malaysia is dealing with logistical issues such as the transfer of people to hospitals and a large number of foreign workers who are being screened and found to have Covid-19.
“We are talking about more than 1,000 cases a day. This is due to the increase in testing among foreign workers and, as expected, more cases are diagnosed,” said Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham, quoted by Malay Mail.
“Foreign workers have nowhere to be isolated … we have thousands here. We are increasing the number of (hospital) beds to 10,000.”
Malaysia has stepped up testing of foreign workers for Covid-19.
The application of the mandatory Covid-19 assessment for foreign workers will begin on January 1, only for the six high-risk states and federal territories, said Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan, The Star newspaper reported. .
These states include Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Sabah along with the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan, in which some 800,000 foreign workers participate.
For other states, mass testing on foreign workers will begin after February of next year.
Datuk Seri Saravanan said that as of Sunday, a total of 68,460 foreign workers had been screened, involving 2,385 employers, according to The Star.
Authorities have been heavily monitoring the accommodation of foreign workers in recent weeks and issuing fines to companies, including glove manufacturers, for housing migrants in overcrowded and poor conditions, which in part have caused the spread of the Covid-19.
Malaysia recorded 1,196 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, according to Malay Mail. It currently has 20,233 active cases of Covid-19.
Malaysia on Saturday (December 26) recorded a record number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, with 2,335 infections. Kuala Lumpur accounted for the largest proportion (31.2 percent) of the new infections, with 728 cases. It was followed by Selangor with 710 cases and Johor with 412 cases.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has doubled the number of beds in a government quarantine and treatment center at Serdang in Selangor, located on the Kuala Lumpur border, to more than 6,000 due to the growing number of Covid-19 cases. The center is at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang or MAEPS.
“The capacity of beds in MAEPS 2.0 has increased by 3,032 to a total of 6,132,” the ministry tweeted on Monday (December 28). He said the bed capacity at the center could be further increased to 10,000 beds, if necessary.
“Deputy Director General of Health Datuk Dr. Rohaizat Yon (physician) said that the opening of a new ward at MAEPS follows the increase in Covid-19 cases,” the ministry said.
The MAEPS quarantine center was activated from April 16 to July 15 and had treated 1,362 patients, most of whom were not Malaysians.
On December 9, Chief Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the center would be reactivated following a spike in Covid-19 cases among foreign workers.
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