He lamented the fact that there were still employers who were not cooperating on this matter.
“We urge employers to work together with the human resources ministry and the health ministry because there will be significant consequences to them if they fail to do so,” he said.
Ismail added that if any of their workers test positive, the authorities would automatically shut down their whole operation.
“So, it would be better for them to cooperate to avoid any cases involving their workers.”
So far, he said, 17,000 foreign workers have been screened since Dec 1.
He said 550 of them tested positive for Covid-19 and 16,450 were negative.
According to Ismail, 663 factories had been involved in this screening and 652 clinics had carried out these tests.
The government made it mandatory from Dec 1 to test all foreign workers working in all sectors nationwide with the antigen rapid test kit.
Ismail said travellers entering Malaysia must do a swab test three days before departure. Following that, he said they will only be quarantined for seven days, instead of 10.
“However, if travellers are unable to do a swab test before leaving, they will need to undergo a swab test upon arrival in Malaysia. If they test negative, they still need to undergo a mandatory quarantine of 10 days.”
On daily operations by enforcement agencies, Ismail said police arrested 201 people yesterday over offences related to the movement control order.
Ismail said all of them were issued compound fines.
Among the offences were participating in activities at entertainment centres, failure to wear face masks and failing to provide materials for contact tracing or registration.
He added that police caught 14 illegal immigrants under Ops Benteng.
On the arrivals in the country since July 24, Ismail said there had been 86,344 people who came in via KLIA from various countries.
Of that number, a total of 528 people had tested positive for Covid-19 and were sent to hospital for treatment, while 75,613 were allowed to return home and 10,203 are currently undergoing mandatory quarantine.
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