New cluster at Immigration depot

Health DG: 35 detained before MCO started test positive for Covid-19

PUTRAJAYA: A new Covid-19 cluster has been detected at the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot, where 35 detainees have tested positive for the disease.

“It is unclear how the detainees have gotten the virus. All of them were detained before the movement control order (MCO) was implemented on March 18,” said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“We were informed by the International Health Regulation Committee that some of those who were deported home have tested positive for Covid-19.

“So we screened all those in Block A. Some of them displayed symptoms. In total, 35 of them were found to be Covid-19 positive,” he said at the ministry’s daily press conference.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were no new detainees at Block A since the MCO was implemented.

“We were told that those in Block A had not mixed with detainees who came into the centre later than that.

“We need to investigate how they could have gotten the virus. Perhaps from a worker or kitchen staff?”

As at 12pm yesterday, a total of 645 individuals at the detention centre had been tested.

Of that number, there were 35 positive cases and 400 negative. Another 210 test results are pending.

The positive cases comprise 17 Myanmar nationals, 15 from India and one each from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Egypt.

Decontamination as well as health awareness activities had been conducted at the depot.

Earlier, Dr Noor Hisham announced 50 new cases in the country, including the immigration depot cluster.

Only three out of the 50 new cases were imported, while the rest were local transmissions.

The total number of infections is 7,059, but only 1,149 of them are active cases.

Ninety patients were discharged yesterday, which means 5,796 or 82.1% people have recovered so far.

The national death toll remains at 114.

On the recent Covid-19 case involving a pregnant woman in Kelantan, Dr Noor Hisham said 30 of her family members had been tested.

“Twenty of them have tested negative while the results for the rest are pending.

“We are also tracing the woman’s close contacts, both at her destination in Kelantan as well as in Ampang, Selangor, where she travelled from,” he said.

The woman, who is 35 weeks pregnant, went to Kuala Krai with the intention of giving birth in her home state.