GEORGE TOWN – The state government has reiterated its call that workers in industrial and manufacturing sectors categorised as economic frontliners be given priority in Phase 2 of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said his party has raised the matter several times in the Covid-19 Pandemic Management Special Committee Meeting with federal government agencies, but so far there has been no official response on the matter.
This is because industrial workers contribute to the tally of daily cases, he said.
Chow said Penang has 12 clusters: 10 related to industrial workers; one education cluster; and one linked to a detention depot.
“So far, we have been informed by the state Health Department that the Covid-19 infections in the state are under control because they are between 120 and 150 cases a day,” he said in a press conference at Komtar today.
“However, in meetings with the federal government, we always emphasise that more efforts can be taken to avoid factory clusters.”
Last March, Chow urged the federal government to give priority to factory workers in Penang for vaccination following the current active cluster involving the group.
The call by the state government was also brought to the attention of Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin during his working visit to Penang on April 1.
Meanwhile, Chow said, so far 105,066 or 70% of the approximately 140,000 foreign workers in the state have undergone the mandatory Covid-19 screening.
“Of the total, 4,352 or 4.14% tested positive for Covid-19 and employers were urged to conduct mass screening tests on the rest.”
On the vaccination, he said, a total of 29,334 frontline individuals in the state completed two doses while 36,982 people had received their first jab. – The Vibes, April 13, 2021
