MIRI – Stricter control of movement of foreign workers in rural Sarawak is needed to prevent an explosion of Covid-19 infections in its rural frontiers, said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri James Masing today.
He sounded the alarm after an Indonesian worker was confirmed as Covid-19 positive at a remote construction site in Kapit district in the heart of central Sarawak.
Masing, who is the state assemblyman for Baleh, held an urgent meeting with the Kapit district Health Department and district office personnel yesterday afternoon.
They discussed the case involving the 36-year-old Indonesian man found positive on January 2.
They found worrying details showing that shortly before his test results confirmed him as Covid-19 positive, he had visited numerous longhouses and patronised eateries and the canteen at the Sg Merama locality, where the road construction is taking place.
Masing said the case was of great concern as it showed Covid-19’s spread to the very rural district of Kapit.
“We must now enforce very strict control over the movement of outsiders, especially foreign workers, coming into rural settlements,” he said.
“We don't want Covid-19 to spread in rural areas as that would be disastrous.
“Health units have found that the Indonesian worker had visited several longhouses, eateries, and canteens at the construction sites.
“There are at least five populated longhouses, a school, and a timber camp located along the road construction sites.
“Health teams are carrying out urgent tests among construction workers and are also tracing all locals he had been in contact with,” said Masing at the meeting.
The Indonesian worker, who has a work permit, has been in Sarawak legally since 2018.
Masing called for tighter measures to be enforced to check on the health status of foreign workers in this vast state, and for their presence to be tightly monitored.
It is estimated that there are at least 60,000 foreign workers in Sarawak.
The state disaster relief management committee said it will make public all the places that Covid-19 positive patients had visited, with dates and times.
It said this will let the public know if they had unknowingly been in close contact with any positive patients and should go for immediate Covid-19 health tests. – The Vibes, January 7, 2021
