MPs, assistants, Parliament staff should get tested every two weeks

 

The Health Ministry has recommended that all MPs and those with official business at the Parliament undergo Covid-19 swab tests every two weeks.

The ministry's director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that this is to make sure that all of them are free from the coronavirus.

"Our concern is that these MPs come from all over the country. Although they have done swab tests three days before Dewan Rakyat started, they are still exposed to the risk of in-community infection.

"Now, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Selangor are under the conditional movement control order (because of a high number of cases), so they (MPs) are still exposed to positive cases. For example, those who have no symptoms," he said.

The Parliament building is located in Kuala Lumpur which has seen a high number of Covid-19 cases recently and has several districts classified as red zones.

Noor Hisham was speaking during a press conference in Putrajaya this evening on a new set of Covid-19 prevention measures being implemented in the Parliament for the ongoing Dewan Rakyat session.

Earlier today, Parliament Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun issued a statement listing the new measures, which included limiting the number of MPs in the hall to only 80 at any given time, and to shorten the sitting time to only between 10am and 2pm every day.

According to Noor Hisham, the decision to limit the number of parliamentarians inside the Dewan Rakyat was made to improve existing procedures, which already included physical distancing and installation of partitions between MPs.

In making the decision, the ministry also factored in the number of other officials needed to assist the MPs as well as Parliament staff, he said.

"If each MP has one assistant, there would be over 400 people already. And on top of that, there are other Parliament staff members.

"So the number is huge. The SOPs are there, but we can enhance the SOP further," he said. - Mkini