GEORGE TOWN, May 25 — Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has called on everyone in Penang to practise “self lockdown” as the state continues to record a high number of Covid-19 cases.
He said the manufacturing sector in Penang has the highest number of clusters with two new ones recorded yesterday.
“Even though the R-naught (R-t) for Penang as of May 23 is the lowest in the country at 1.06, the number of cases since last week has remained high,” he said in a statement issued today.
He said the state has taken the initiative to work with the Federation of Manufacturers Malaysia (FMM) Penang to conduct on-site pooled saliva RT-PCR screening.
“The screening started on May 22 and till today, a total of 538 individuals have been screened,” he said.
He said that he hopes the manufacturing sector will comply with the latest standard operating procedure (SOP) on the percentage of workers allowed at the workplace.
“Everyone needs to work together on this to prevent paralysing our entire medical sector,” he said.
Chow then urged the federal government to speed up the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme especially for those in the manufacturing sector and those in the red zones.
Penang recorded 384 new cases yesterday and currently has 1,789 active cases.
