MoH will screen 700 staff, 800 inmates at Sungai Buloh Prison

The Ministry of Health (MOH) will conduct a COVID-19 detection test on 700 staff and 800 inmates at the Sungai Buloh Prison after a prisoner was confirmed positive for the virus.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the non-Malaysian inmate had been separated and transferred to the Immigration Detention Depot in Semenyih.

"We are now looking at the close contacts of the prisoner and we will filter them out. We have moved the prisoner to the detention depot in Semenyih.

“PKD (District Health Office) Gombak will filter out the inmates' close contacts. Not only close contacts but 700 staff and 800 inmates in the prison will be screened.

“If we detect a positive case, we will continue to conduct active case detection (ACD) on those exposed to the prisoner including staff. Screening is under way," he said at a press conference here today.

He added that the COVID-19 positive prisoner had been in prison since 2016 and had gone out on March 13, 2020 before being tested positive.