Inmate with Covid-19 triggers screening for 1,500 at Sg Buloh prison

CORONAVIRUS | A total of 1,500 individuals from the Sungai Buloh prison, consisting of staff and prisoners, will undergo Covid-19 screening after an inmate there was confirmed positive for the coronavirus.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the prisoner, who is a foreign citizen, had been in there since 2016 but he did leave the prison on March 13, and has been moved to the Semenyih Immigration depot after contracting the disease.

“Now we are looking at the prisoner’s close contacts and we will also screen them if they were exposed to the prisoner.

“The Gombak District Health Office will screen not just the close contacts, but 700 staff and 800 prisoners from the prison as well,” he said at the ministry's daily press conference today.

Malaysiakini is currently seeking further clarification from the director-general on this matter.

Noor Hisham (photo) also said they have been doing surveillance for Covid-19 since January with the peak being in April.

Now, the surveillance for influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory infections has been lessened, but he pointed to their pre-operation surveillance, where their detection rate is only 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, their incidence rate for community surveillance is only 0.4 to 0.8 percent. These figures are very low, he said.

“In other words, we are actually looking into local transmission cases, perhaps there will be sporadic cases, but again, we are trying to track where the exposure came from and so on.

“If we can contain such cases, then rest assured we can break the chain of infection. This is an ongoing process,” he said.

Noor Hisham also spoke about the ministry’s efforts in screening old folks homes, saying that the incidence rate is also very low at 0.2 percent.

However, he said they have noticed that one of the factors for infections within old folks homes is the caretakers or the personnel who are coming in and out of the homes.

“The caretakers or personnel coming in and out of old folks home or even the prison, they are the ones who have the potential to bring the infection in because the old folks are not going anywhere, they are confined to the home, but sometimes the caretaker coming in and out may not realise they have the infections,” Noor Hisham said.

He said the ministry will continue to do surveillance and perhaps in the future, the ministry will also do community survey in immunity to see how many among the population has been exposed to Covid-19.

 - Mkini