KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Panasonic Manufacturing Malaysia Bhd today disclosed that 116 employees at its two manufacturing facilities in Shah Alam have tested positive for Covid-19.

According to Panasonic’s filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the electronics company said it would be temporarily closing the facilities from December 21 to 23 for disinfection, after being advised to do so by the Petaling district health office.

"The company had completed full screening of about 2,137 workers and employees and only 116 were found to be affected.

"The safety and well-being of our workers and employees, as well as our community, is of our utmost priority towards containing the situation,” it said.

Panasonic added that it has been conducting disinfection exercises at its premises and workers’ accommodation regularly, and will continue to adhere to Covid-19 related standard operating procedures (SOPs)

On December 1, the Malaysian government made screenings of all foreign workers mandatory in order to detect cases of Covid-19, after a rise in such cases at factories and construction sites.

Since then, the Health Ministry has been recording new workplace-related Covid-19 clusters almost daily, including three new clusters yesterday.

As of yesterday, there are 15,563 active Covid-19 cases and 199 active clusters recorded by the ministry.