Speaking to FMT, Chin Chee Seong, the national vice-president of the SME Association of Malaysia, said at least 50 of their members in Klang alone have stopped operations.

“The problem for factories like these is that they are not considered essential despite the fact that they are suppliers to essential industries. Because of this only 10% of their workforce are allowed on site.

“But these factories are small, some only have around 50 workers. How do you run a factory with five people?

“They feel it is better to close and just rely on government aid despite getting approvals to operate from the international trade and industry ministry (Miti).”

Some factories, he said, even took the risk of operating with more workers than permitted because stopping operations would lead to orders being cancelled, thus resulting in heavy losses.

Chin said he hoped the government will expedite the vaccination programme for industries so that companies can operate at full capacity once more.

The government’s public-private partnership Covid-19 industrial immunisation programme (Pikas) which began this week is a response to the proposal for industries to speed up the vaccination of workers.

A total of 2,082 companies with 301,050 workers have registered for Pikas, which sees vaccinations conducted at factory premises and industrial locations.