Voon Shiak Ni
KUCHING (Sept 27): Business operators here have called upon Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to draw up proper guidelines for companies, where some members of their workforce have been identified as Covid-19 positive.
In highlighting this call, social activist Voon Shiak Ni said the guidelines were especially crucial in deciding whether or not a company should shut down if one of its staff members tested positive for the virus.
“We sincerely hope that SDMC could look into this matter urgently so that business operators would haveguidelines to follow in such decisions.
“The pertinent question is if the company should close down the whole office if a staff member tested positive (for Covid-19),” she said in a statement here issued yesterday.
Voon added that as almost all the economic sectors being reopened and restrictions of people’s movements being lifted, the business communities would like to have clear guidelines on handling the situation where some members of their workforce had been detected with Covid-19.
“This issue affects thousands of private companies, and the feedback and input received from some employers indicate that this (staff members found to be close-contacts to Covid-19 positive cases) could be a weekly occurrence.
“This is not surprising as the daily number of infections is high. Imagine one positive contact having five to six family members and being in a workplace with 20 or more colleagues – the extent of work activities being affected could be huge.
“As all companies are only allowed to operate with workers who have been fully-vaccinated, we seek SDMC to revise new guidelines on the SOP required of private companies to enable their businesses to operate effectively, to boost economy and also to cope with the new norm of living with the coronavirus,” said Voon.