Its minister, Azmin Ali, said based on data released by the health ministry, Covid-19 cases involving the manufacturing sector were only between 5% and 10%.

“Therefore, it is not right to blame the economic sector, especially the manufacturing sector,” he said when asked to comment on the call for factories to be closed due to the continued high number of Covid-19 cases.

Azmin also said based on the data released by the health ministry, 75% of positive cases involve sporadic cases detected in the community.

“About 75% of positive cases which exist today are sporadic which means that the virus is within the community. Only 25% comes from various forms of clusters which includes the workplace,” he said.

Azmin did not deny, however, that the opening of these economic sectors could still contribute to Covid-19 infections and clusters during the total lockdown.

“It is difficult of course when we decide to allow some sectors of the economy to operate but the government has decided to do this in order to safeguard Malaysia’s economy.

“Malaysia is part of the global supply chain so we do not want any disruption of food supply and basic necessities which also involve essential goods for health,” he said.

Azmin also reiterated that factories allowed to operate at this time have to comply with strict SOPs.

“We also ask employers to conduct large-scale test screenings on a regular basis to ensure that the spread of infection can be avoided,” he said.

Earlier, Azmin said that the government’s public-private partnership Covid-19 industrial immunisation programme (Pikas) which started on June 16, was also aimed at preventing Covid-19 infections from increasing in the workplace.

So far, three states have been directly involved in the programme, namely Selangor, Penang and Johor. As of June 27, a total of 16,564 workers have received their jabs.

Pikas was launched on June 12 as a response to a proposal by industrial associations, chambers of commerce and small- and medium-sized enterprises to help speed up vaccination, specifically involving workers with the vaccination conducted at identified factory premises and industrial locations.