22/05/2020 11:55 PM
KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 -- The Immigration Department will be deploying staff from its headquarters and states to take over the management of the COVID10-hit Bukit Jalil detention depot.
Its director-general (DG) Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud said, currently, its management was being assisted by officers from Kuala Lumpur and RELA members for guard duty.
He said all existing staff there were now on 14-day home quarantine pending results of COVID-19 screening.
"So far, screening done on 98 staff at the Bukit Jalil depot showed negative results and all of them have been placed under 14-day quarantine.
“All illegal immigrants there as well as food suppliers will also be screened for COVID-19 by Health Ministry staff," he told a press conference here today.
Khairul Dzaimee said detainees testing positive would be placed at the quarantine centre at the Malaysian Agro-Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS).
Today, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, during his daily briefing on the Conditional Movement Order (CMCO) to combat to the pandemic, had said that all detainees and staff at the Bukit Jalil depot and the one in Semenyih, Selangor would have to undergo COVID-19 screening.
Ismail Sabri, who is also Defence Minister, said there were about 1,200 detainees at the Bukit Jalil depot and 1600 in Semenyih.
He added that, for now, COVID-19 screening would only be done at these two depots following positive COVID-19 cases surfacing there.
Also today, Health DG, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed that 25 cases were detected at the Bukit Jalil depot.
Yesterday, the Health Ministry had detected a new COVID-19 cluster involving illegal immigrants held there.
-- BERNAMA
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