Covid-19: Major spike in Johor cases due to voluntary foreign worker screenings, says Vidyananthan

JOHOR BARU: The major spike of Covid-19 cases in Johor is due to the voluntary screenings carried out by employers on their foreign workers, which started last month.

State Health And Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said that on Thursday (Jan 7), Johor once more recorded the highest number of new cases in Malaysia, with 1,103 cases.

“From the figure, about 1,043 cases are from clusters and close contact screening actively carried out in the field, ” he said, adding that there was a new cluster being reported here, which is the Senai Murni cluster.

He also said that based on investigations, the Health Department found the main contribution to the new cases among foreign workers was due to their movements to red zone areas outside Johor as well as not following the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that have been put in place.

“The foreign workers dormitories also did not follow the SOPs where it is always crowded and cramped.

“However, once the department identifies a that reports a high number of positive cases, the dormitory will be placed under an enhanced movement control order (MCO) to control the spread within the community, ” he added.

Vidyananthan said that until Thursday, three dormitories for foreign workers had been placed under an enhanced MCO - the Johor Baru Westlife dormitory, Westlife 1 and Westlife 2 dormitories in Kulai and the Kejora Juara dormitory at Bukit Pasir in Muar.