PUTRAJAYA, June 2 — Covid-19 screening at prisons or detention depots will be conducted only in facilities where positive cases of the coronavirus have been detected, said Senior Minister (security cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said the screening would not involve those centres where there were no Covid-19 cases.
“The principle is the same, Covid-19 screening only in affected areas like has happened at the Semenyih Immigration Detention Depot (DTI) and Bukit Jalil DTI.
“As such, there is no need for screening at other DTI or prisons because there were no cases,” he told a daily news conference on the conditional movement control order (CMCO) here today.
Ismail Sabri said in the case of the Sungai Buloh Prison, it has eight blocks and only inmates at the affected block would be screened.
He said this was because the inmates at different blocks were not allowed to mix.
Ismail Sabri said beginning today, 600 inmates from the affected block in Sungai Buloh Prison would be screened for Covid-19.
However, the 700 staff at Sungai Buloh Prison would be tested for Covid-19 regardless of whether they worked in the affected block or not, he added.
He was commenting on reports that a former inmate of Sungai Buloh Prison, who was released on March 13, was tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, he said no visitors were allowed at prisons during the CMCO period for fear they might spread the coronavirus.
Asked on a Rohingya man who escaped from Institut Latihan Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia quarantine centre in Ipoh yesterday, Ismail Sabri said he had been arrested and returned to the Covid-19 quarantine centre.
— Bernama
