Covid-19: S’wak oil palm plantations, mills to submit workers’ list

KUCHING: All oil palm plantations and mills in Sarawak are required to submit a list of their workers to the state disaster management committee, as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19, says Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the list should be submitted in the next one to two days to the divisional-level committee where the plantations or mills are located.

"We want to know the number of foreign workers in the respective plantations and mills.

"We also want to know if there are any health issues and their travel history," he told a press conference after inspecting the Bau Palm Oil Mill near here on Wednesday (March 25).

Uggah said plantations were a potential area of random clusters, as had occurred in Sabah where several plantations were closed after positive cases were detected there.

"In Sarawak, there are no positive cases in plantations yet, and we hope it will remain that way, but we must be vigilant.

"Nearly 70% of our positive cases are imported cases, so this is why we want the foreign workers to be monitored closely by the plantations," he said.

Uggah also said oil palm plantations and mills could continue to operate, if they complied with the standard operating procedures set out by the government.

These include temperature checks, social distancing and no large gatherings at workers' quarters, he said.