KLANG: The Selangor government wants the Federal Government to shut down factories that do not divulge the number of Covid-19 positive cases among their workers and refuse to cooperate in contact tracing exercises.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the state government would propose this stern move to the Federal Government.

The Mentri Besar’s recommendation follows the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases in Selangor, with 3,126 out of the 5,725 new transmissions recorded on Jan 29.

The decision to urge Putrajaya to penalise errant factories that conceal the number of Covid-19 cases in their premises was made at the State Security Special Committee for Covid-19 Control meeting chaired by Amirudin on Friday night.

Amirudin said the committee had also identified all factories in the state that were prime locations of Covid-19 transmission.

“Hence, the state government will implement the Preventing Outbreak at Ignition Site programme, which is a screening programme in all factories and workplaces that have the potential to create clusters and transmissions.

“This is to break the chain (of infection) as well as prevent workplace clusters, ’’ Amirudin said in a media statement yesterday.

The programme, he added, will be in collaboration with the state Health Department, Selgate Corporation Sdn Bhd, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers and the state’s local councils.

Amirudin also revealed that the increase in Covid-19 cases in Selangor, as announced by the Health Ministry, was reflective of the results of backlog cases coming from screening exercises at factories, prisons, clinics and private hospitals that had not been immediately reported.

“These backlogs can be traced back to 10 days ago. To overcome this problem, the state Health Department will compound private clinics and hospitals that fail to report positive cases immediately on the same day through Simka (Public Health Laboratory Information System), ’’ he added.

In an immediate response to Amirudin’s statement, Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said it was unfair of the Mentri Besar to “threaten” to compound private medical establishments that allegedly did not report infected cases in real time.

“We don’t know if this allegation is factual or true but we would like to sit down and discuss the matter with the state government.”

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/01/31/sgor-mb-throw-book-at-errant-factories