Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 25 -- The Health Ministry (MOH) has expressed hope that Members of Parliament (MPs) will vote wisely on Budget 2021 for the sake of the country and the people, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"At a time when the country is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, MOH is confident that they understand the current situation, that is the pandemic and country’s financial situation, and hope that the MPs will vote wisely,” said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said this at a press conference today on COVID-19 when asked on MOH’s hope on the budget vote, which is expected to be taken tomorrow in the Dewan Rakyat.

Meanwhile, on the Teratai cluster in Klang, Dr Noor Hisham said MOH has not found any community infection, as the COVID-19 cases detected so far involved only workers and their close contacts.

"For example, 164 Malaysian workers who live in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur went back and infected about 70 of their family members, but outside of the cluster we have not seen any infection among the community," he said.

He said the company has 11,215 workers and so far 6,506 screening tests have been conducted, with 4,063 testing positive, 2,270 negative and 173 still awaiting their results.

"Tomorrow, we will complete 14 days of quarantine for them and on the 13th day we will do a second test. We will only release them if the results are negative,” he added.

He said MOH yesterday issued an order for the closure of 20 factories of the company, and eight more will be closed in stages.

"Although the factories have been shut, their machines have to continue running to avoid damage due to inactivity. So, we allow the machines to operate but at a minimum level,” he added.

-- BERNAMA