Following positive case, MOH now screening pre-MCO immigration detainees

CORONAVIRUS | Following news that five Myanmar nationals tested positive for Covid-19 after they were recently deported from Malaysia, the Health Ministry has determined that one of them was detained prior to the movement control order (MCO).

Due to the discovery, the ministry will now screen all detainees who were arrested before March 18.

The ministry’s director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah clarified today that all foreign nationals who were detained after March 18 have already been screened for Covid-19.

“Now we are trying our best to screen the 437 (detainees who were arrested) before the MCO. These are the pre-MCO cases and we have not screened everyone there.

“So our initiative now (is) since one case is positive, we will screen the 437,” he said when asked about the matter during his daily press briefing this afternoon.

He did not reveal details on the four other Myanmar nationals who tested positive for the virus after returning home from Malaysian immigration detention centres.

Noor Hisham shared that there are presently 1,437 detainees at the KL Immigration depot – 1,000 of whom were detained during the MCO and 437 detained before the MCO.

He said the 437 were isolated in a separate building before the MCO began.

Independent Myanmar newspaper The Irrawaddy previously reported yesterday that 391 undocumented Myanmar nationals were deported from Malaysia on two chartered flights on May 11.

Of the group, five tested positive for the virus and have been quarantined.

The number rose to eight as of today.

Myanmar reported a total of 191 Covid-19 cases and six deaths so far.

Malaysia, meanwhile, reported 37 cases and one death, and has a total of 6,978 cases and 113 deaths. - Mkini