KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — The Federal Territories Ministry’s mass screening programme will prioritise densely populated areas with a high number of Covid-19 cases, said its minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said the effort was to ensure that early preventive measures could be done comprehensively as many of the reported Covid-19 cases now were asymptomatic.

"This is also the assist the Health Ministry because usually mass screening will only be conducted in areas which are placed under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO).

"Now, we are going to conduct mass screening before the EMCO is implemented. If there are 10 or 15 cases in the area, we will come in. For the first phase, we have identified 15 housing areas,” he said at a news conference in Bandar Tun Razak today.

He had earlier inspected the first stage of the targeted community screening programme at the Seri Sabah Public Housing here, which offers free Covid-19 screening tests using the RTK (Rapid Test Kit Antigen) method, limited to 300 residents a day.

On the registration rate for the Covid-19 immunisation programme, he said 100 per cent of Putrajaya residents have registered via the MySejahtera application while Kuala Lumpur (70 per cent) and Labuan (60 per cent).

Meanwhile, Annuar, who is also the Ketereh Member of Parliament, said he welcomed the proposal to hold the Parliament sitting in a hybrid manner.

"I personally welcome the move. Ministers will be able to provide explanations in an orderly manner and listen to supplementary questions...as long as the sitting does not interfere with the process of Emergency Proclamation because the priority now is to fight Covid-19,” he said.

In the meantime, Annuar said he would make an announcement next week on the assistance for hawkers and small traders who are affected by the total lockdown. — Bernama