SINGAPORE – Top manufacturing, the world’s largest medical glove manufacturer, has shut down 20 manufacturing sites in Malaysia after thousands of workers tested positive for Covid-19.
As of Wednesday, a total of 2,684 top glove employees – most of them foreign workers – had tested positive, local media quoted senior Malaysian security and defense minister Ismail Sabri Yakob as saying.
It is the largest cluster ever New infections have been reported in the Southeast Asian country, where a resurgence of cases has forced the government to impose fresh new partial lockdown measures, according to figures from Malaysia’s health ministry.
Officials in the country are testing all top glove workers in factories and bedrooms affected by the coronavirus. International Trade and Industry Minister Mohammed Azmin Ali told CNBC on Thursday that the government “hopes to address the issue in the next two weeks.”
“It’s very unfortunate that recently, there were some issues with regard to the positive cases reported in the factories,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”
Azmin pointed out that Top Glove was one of the companies allowed to continue full operations in Malaysia’s lockdown given its importance to local and global markets.
The company has increased demand for its products as a result of the epidemic. Contributed to the rise in its share price.
Shares of Top Glove listed in Malaysia and Singapore Declined following its factory closure announcements, but both markets have risen more than 300% so far this year, according to figures from Refinitive.
Top Glove said in a statement Wednesday that about 5,700 of its workers have been tested for the virus, and The screening of the remaining employees could be completed by the end of this week.
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