PUTRAJAYA: Out of the 4,228 Covid-19 positive cases in the country, 416 are non-Malaysians.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in his daily press briefing today, said the foreigners consist of Indonesians (53), Indian nationals (37), Myanmar (31), Pakistan (29) and the Philippines (27).
There were also two deaths from the foreigners, one each from Pakistan and Indonesia.
Dr Noor Hisham said the Health Ministry is now working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to ensure that refugees and asylum-seekers are also included in the government’s Covid-19 tracking and preventive measures.
“Where foreigners are concerned, we will notify their respective embassies or high commissions if they test positive,” he said.
Commenting on red zones and areas where the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) has been implemented, Dr Noor Hisham said in any large density area, it’s important to identify the hot spots within that area and zoom into those.
“This is to ensure that we can focus our limited resources on those spots,” he said.
This approach has been taken in Kuala Lumpur, specifically at the Selangor Mansion and Malayan Mansion, both of which are under EMCO.
“We zoomed into those condos rather than the whole area. These are some of our innovative approaches for targeted action to be done in that area. Each one of these buildings has between 2,500-3,000 people and our staff have been going house-to-house to do screening and investigation,” he added.
So far, 15 cases have tested positive at these two places. The individuals are now in hospital.
The Health Ministry is now actively tracking the close contacts of these people to contain and test them.
If these close contacts test positive, they too will be removed from the premises for isolation and treatment.
Many of those residing in these two places are reported to be foreigners.