Covid-19 outbreak in immigration depots may have been caused by infected detainees who initially tested negative

PUTRAJAYA (June 4): The Covid-19 outbreak in immigration detention depots may have been caused by infected detainees who initially tested negative, as the virus was still in its incubation period, health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.  

Dr Noor Hisham said as the detainees were brought in to the immigration centres undetected, they may have unintentionally infected other detainees due to the cramped cells of the depots.  

"We have done the screening, but maybe one or two of them were probably still in the incubation period. So they tested negative. And then when we place them in the immigration detention depots, they become positive and start to infect other detainees," he said in his daily Covid-19 press briefing.  

He said at the moment, the health ministry is still looking into the cause of the infection but the current concern regarding the depots are the confined spaces, as well as congested or crowded areas among the detainees, which makes social distancing impossible. 

As such, he said the ministry may be required to relook the protocols before admitting persons to detention centres, so as to avoid further outbreaks in the centres. 

Malaysia reported 277 new cases of Covid-19 as of noon today, the highest number of daily cases so far.

All but seven of today’s cases emerged from repeat testing of detainees at the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot.  

So far, the Bukit Jalil depot has reported 608 positive cases, while 66 cases were reported in the Semenyih Detention Depot, and 60 cases at the Sepang Detention Depot.  

Earlier last month, Malaysian authorities raided foreign workers' quarters, as part of its crackdown to round up and detain hundreds of undocumented migrants including Rohingya refugees. 

The action drew criticism from several quarters as senior minister for security Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had previously urged all migrant workers to have no fear to come forward immediately to be tested for Covid-19. 

This is because the government had agreed not to make their legal status an issue but would instead focus on curbing the pandemic.

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