COVID-19: MoH will not give foreigners badges or tags

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that it will not provide badges or 'tags' to foreigners who have undergone COVID-19 screening but only a confirmation letter.

Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this was because the screening test was based on that period only.

Therefore, he explained, preparing a screening test letter was more practical than giving a badge.

“Those (foreigners) who have undergone our tests, we will provide the result in a letter, not in the form of 'tags.'

“The test was for that time only but if we were to tag it, it would have been like a ‘certificate’ for a pass.

"So, for tests conducted for non-citizens, we will notify the employer if the employer (conducts the screening test) of the workers. Otherwise, we will provide them with a letter instead of a tag," he said in a daily press conference here on Friday.

Dr Noor Hisham said this when asked to comment on the effectiveness of a proposal to provide a badge to foreigners who have tested negative for COVID-19 in an effort to prevent COVID-19 infection.

Earlier, the government through the Ministry of Human Resources (MOH) said it would discuss the possibility of providing 'tags' or badges to foreigners who have undergone COVID-19 screening.

Senior Minister (Security), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said the hospital would issue a letter containing further test results and instructions to any individual who performed the COVID-19 screening.