GEORGE TOWN – Penang is worried over the lack of resources to screen some 135,000 registered migrant workers in the state, seeing as it only has 35 public clinics equipped to conduct swab tests.
State local government committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said even if the clinics operate 24 hours daily, it will be difficult to test all the workers by this month as it may take the state more than six months.
“Also, who will bear the costs – that is the question employers are asking.
“The Health Ministry needs to assure us on how it will tackle this predicament,” he said after a media event on a design competition for the proposed Penang Bay urban renewal project.
He said local employers in Penang have been cooperating with the Health Ministry’s directive to test their migrant workforce even before the federal directive.
To date, Penang has tested 6,238 migrant workers. All tests have come back negative, he added.
Jagdeep also urged the media to report responsibly as there is no official information that migrant workers had fled their homes listed under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO).
“We cannot react to claims without official information. We do not want to create a panic.”
The EMCO starts in Mukim 12 and 13 on the island whereas the rest of the state returns to the recovery movement control order (RMCO) status now.
The EMCO affects 10,300 residents including migrant workers in areas stretching from Batu Uban to Relau and Paya Terubong – localities where there is high concentration of non-citizens.
Separately, today's Penang Bay competition is to attract designers from throughout the world to help create an artistic impression of how the waterfronts of Prai and Penang Island would look like under the proposed mega project. – The Vibes, December 7, 2020
