No Choice But To Open Certain Factories Say Doctors

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Certain factories have to stay open because essential services need support from other sectors, says MMA’s Dr Subramaniam Muniandy. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: The government has no choice but to allow factories in certain sectors to remain open, said two doctors.
President of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said a strict sectoral lockdown was not feasible as essential services such as food and beverage, and also healthcare, needed support from other sectors.
His comments come in light of a backlash against the government for allowing operations of manufacturing factories in 18 different sectors to continue.
Many social media users said the definitions were too broad and companies might abuse the loopholes. They said that, because of this, the current “total lockdown” might not be as strict as it was during MCO 1.0.
Dr Subramaniam Muniandy.“It’s not a question of lives or livelihood. Lockdowns cost lives, too. People lose their jobs, starve and get sick. Covid-19 isn’t the only cause of death. It’s a difficult balance. The only way is to speed up vaccination,” Subramaniam said.
He said that if SOPs were strictly followed, this would not be a problem, but “slipshod” procedures and poor compliance were often the rule rather than the exception.
“Again, if the authorities acted swiftly and quarantined all positive cases immediately and did rapid testing of contacts, isolated cases wouldn’t bloom into clusters,” he said.
Unfortunately, he said, test results often took days, and contact tracing and testing were also slow. “Given this, restricting operations to certain sectors appears necessary.”
PKR’s Dr Michael Jeyakumar agreed, saying some factories and businesses must remain open for economic sustainability.
Dr Michael Jayakumar.Jeyakumar, who is a pulmonologist, said that detailed government data on the factory case spikes and the sectors and regions involved was still unclear.
Even though certain sectors must remain open for the economy, he said, the issue was the treatment of undocumented migrant workers who would often be in contact with legal foreign workers employed at these factories.
“That is a big problem, taking this really repressive stand against foreigners. They have no incentive to come forward,” he said, apparently referring to the Immigration Department’s intention to round up undocumented foreign workers during the lockdown.
Jeyakumar said this was interrelated with the longstanding spikes in Covid-19 cases at factories and workplaces, and that it was a mistake to target them during raids.
“We need them to come forward. If the government can solve this problem, that is one big Achilles heel Malaysia is facing in our Covid-19 control.”
The government has allowed 18 manufacturing sectors to operate during the current movement control order (MCO3.0) period.
Sectors allowed with 60% worker capacity include aerospace (including maintenance, repair and overhaul), food and beverage, packaging and printing materials, personal care products and cleaning supplies, healthcare and medical care (including dietary supplement), personal protective equipment (including rubber gloves, and fire safety equipment).
Others are medical equipment components, electrical and electronics (E&E), oil and gas (including petrochemical and petrochemical products), chemical products, machinery and equipment, textiles for manufacturing of PPE only, and production, distillation, storage, supply, and distribution of fuels and lubricants.
Sectors allowed with 10% workforce are automotive (vehicles and components), iron and steel, cement, glass, and ceramics. - FMT

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