PUTRAJAYA: Employers who prevent workers from undergoing self-quarantine while waiting for their Covid-19 test results can be penalised under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342), said Health Minister Datuk Dr Adham Baba.
He said workers who are positive must undergo compulsory quarantine for 10 days, while those who are negative should go into self-isolation.
“If employers are found to have disallowed this quarantine, provisions of Act 342 can be used to impose penalties on them.
“Action can be taken if employers do not allow their workers, either suspected cases or those being tested, to go into self-quarantine until the results are obtained,” he told a joint media conference with National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin here today.
He issued the warning after the number of workplace-related Covid-19 clusters surged to 44 in week 18 (May 2-8) from 24 clusters in week 17 (April 25-May 1).
He said this trend was worrying as it represented an 83.3% increase in the period.
Adham said Covid-19 deaths had also been on a rising trend over a six-week period, with 22 cases in week 12 (March 21-27), 35 cases each in week 13 (March 28-April 3) and week 14 (April 4-10), 49 cases in week 15 (April 11-17), 56 cases in week 16 (April 18-24) and 95 cases in week 17.
As at May 8, the death toll was 1,657 or a fatality rate of 0.38%, he said.
Adham said 9.98 million individuals had taken the RT-PCR Covid-19 test as at May 8.
He said 498,193 tests were conducted in week 18, compared with 480,688 tests in week 17, and the percentage of individuals tested positive in week 18 was 5.1%.
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