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COVID-19 | The director general of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, has suggested that a mass detection of Covid-19 be carried out in prisons to prevent more groups of prisons from emerging.
This comes after he announced that 25.8 percent, or 224 cases, of today’s 869 new Covid-19 cases come from prison clusters in Kedah and Penang.
“We need to take a look at the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in prisons again and make sure that we are checking not only in prisons, but also in detention centers and cells in police stations.
“They need to be protected. One way to do this is for us to do a massive screening.
“This has been discussed with the Department of Prisons and we will increase our public health activities in prisons,” Noor Hisham said during his daily press conference today, which was broadcast live on Facebook.
Earlier, the CEO revealed that the 224 cases came from the Tembok group, the Penjara Reman group and the Seberang Perai prison group.
He said these cases were isolated within prisons and would not affect the community at large.
Previously, the Department of Prisons had announced the suspension of all visits to the prison due to the continued increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
“Visiting sessions between inmates and their families in institutions across the country have been suspended from October 14 until further notice.
“This includes meeting sessions between prisoners and lawyers, the Royal Malaysian Police, embassies and non-governmental organizations,” the Department of Prisons had said.
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