The Selangor State Government today announced a raft of measures totalling RM551.56 million, targeting the 1.6 million residents in Malaysia’s richest and most developed state.

Pakej Kita Selangor 2.0, which is an expansion of measures announced in January, further aims to protect livelihoods, maintain business continuity, and expand the state’s healthcare system to contain the pandemic.

“This package will take care of the welfare and well-being of the people of Selangor, to ensure economic and business sustainability and lastly to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari when announcing the Pakej Kita Selangor 2.0.

For SMEs, Pakej Kita Selangor 2.0 includes liquidity loans under the Selangor Advance program, which will see an additional RM200 million injected into it.

The Pakej Kita Selangor 2.0 also places more emphasis on entrepreneurs and micro SMEs. The state government has set aside RM80 million under the Yayasan Hijrah Selangor to aid entrepreneurs that have started their own business, as a result of being laid off due to the pandemic. The Platform Selangor, or PLATS programme will also be expanded for micro SMEs, especially hawkers and traders to learn the basics of digitalisation.

Find, Test, Trace, Isolate, Support

Selangor has consistently reported high case numbers, even relative to its status as the most populated state in Malaysia. This is partly due to free COVID-19 tests that have been rolled out by the state government, held at all 56 state constituencies from 8 May 2021. According to Amirudin, more than 110,000 individuals have been screened.

“The State Government’s actions are based on the WHO’s recommended strategy of FTTIS, which is to find, test, trace, isolate and support. This strategy aims to find the ‘silent carriers’ among us to break the chain of infectivity,” he said.

To also contain COVID-19 workplace clusters, the Prevention of Outbreak at Ignition Site (POIS) initiative will also be expanded. The aim of POIS is to give holistic solutions to employers and employees alike to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the workplace, which thus far makes up 38.54 percent of clusters, according to health portal Code Blue.

“To prevent the spread of new clusters in factories and workplaces, the State Government will also suggest to the Federal Government to take stern action and close factories that hide positive cases among their workforce, as well as those that do not cooperate in contact tracing,” said Amirudin about the POIS initiative.

To ensure the effective running of POIS, an industry-specific special task force will be set up, chaired by former director of the Selangor State Health Department (JKNS) Dato’ Dr Khalid Ibrahim. Other task force members include MP for Bangi and former Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry Dr Ong Kian Ming, as well as Selangor Task Force Operations director Dr Mohd Farhan Rusli.

The duties of the task force include ensuring pandemic-related OSH protocols are adhered to in workplaces, and expediting vaccinations for economic frontliners.

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