Dr Annuar Rapaee
SIBU (July 21): The Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (SDDMC) coordinator Dr Annuar Rapaee today warned employers against hiring illegal immigrants following the increase in Covid-19 Delta variant in Sarawak.
He said illegal immigrants posed not just safety risk but also health risk as they did not undergo medical screenings and check up, and compulsory quarantine when they entered the Sarawak illegally.
“We also cannot be sure whether they are vaccinated against Covid-19 or otherwise.
“Those who intend to employ foreign workers, please use the proper channel. Why should we bring them in illegally and then create this kind of problem?
“I am sure if it is done through proper procedures, it will be allowed and safe for everyone.
“We have been working so hard to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases in the state and in our vaccination efforts and now comes the Delta variant which is very very infectious. Don’t spoil our effort by bringing in illegal immigrants into our state,” he said during a Facebook live streaming today to explain on Covid-19 Delta variant case in Sibu.
SDDMC in a statement today also said that a Covid-19 sample sent for testing on July 12 were confirmed by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (Unimas) Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) to be the Delta variant.
The sample was from an Indonesian illegal immigrant, who had taken a PCR test on July 7 and tested positive for Covid-19.
“Preliminary screenings showed that the immigrant was infected with the Covid-19 variant, and his samples were sent to Unimas for further testing,” the committee said.
The immigrant has been placed under quarantine at Sibu Hospital since July 7.
SDDMC said the initial investigation found that the immigrant entered Sarawak from Indonesia on July 5.
One of the immigrant’s close contacts including two locals have been tested negative for Covid-19, but were detained in quarantine centres here for 21 days.
Dr Annuar later advised the people to continue to stay vigilant and observe the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“We have to be careful because we do not want it to spread although the case involved an illegal immigrant,” he said.