SHAH ALAM: More than a third of 393 Orang Asli individuals tested for Covid-19 were found to be positive after a targeted screening programme held at three Orang Asli villages in Selangor. In one village, 90 out of 91 people tested were Covid-19 positive.
State tourism, environment, green technology and indigenous affairs committee chairman Hee Loy Sian said 135 people were found to be positive after the screenings at these Orang Asli villages in the Gombak and Petaling; Kuala Langat/Klang and Sepang districts.
“At a village in the Gombak and Petaling districts, almost the entire village was positive. At a village in the Kuala Langat/Klang districts, 42 were screened with 11 of them positive while at another village in Sepang, 34 of the 260 screened were positive.”
Hee said this in response to a question from Elizabeth Wong (PH-Bukit Lanjan) at the Selangor state assembly sitting at Bangunan Dewan Negeri Selangor, here, today.
She wanted to know how the welfare of the Orang Asli community was being taken care of during the pandemic with regard to the types and amount of aid given and the Covid-19 screenings conducted at the Orang Asli villages in the state.
Hee explained that he was only responsible for the implementation of the screening exercise involving Orang Asli villages to find out if there were Covid-19 cases there.
“In Selangor, we have 74 Orang Asli villages … of course we are not able to go to every village to do the screening.
“We can only do targeted screening and we will only enter the villages if there are (Covid-19) cases there,” he said to a supplementary question from Wong on whether the state government had conducted any screening, specifically for the Orang Asli community.
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