Covid-19: Do not discriminate against migrant workers, Health DG warns

PETALING JAYA: With Covid-19 infection clusters emerging in three immigration detention centres, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has said that negative sentiments against detainees must not be amplified and must not be a catalyst for discrimination in saving lives.

The Health director-general said that the whole of government and whole community approach should work together to fight the virus.

“As the virus ravages these centres, we need to enhance active case detection, isolate and treat those positive cases immediately. Quarantine those close contacts and decontaminate the respective centres.

“The virus knows no boundaries and does not favour any ethnicity or social status,” he said in a statement on social media pages Sunday (May 24).

In just a matter of three days, three separate clusters of Covid-19 cases have been detected at three Immigration detention centres in the country.

The Health Ministry reported six cases at the Immigration detention centre in Sepang, the latest cluster to be reported.

On Saturday (May 23), it announced there was a cluster at the Semenyih detention centre and a day before, it revealed one at the Bukit Jalil detention centre.

Altogether, a total of 49 cases have been detected in Semenyih, 60 cases in Bukit Jalil, and seven cases in Sepang.

The government recently detained thousands of undocumented immigrants from areas placed under the enhanced movement control order (MCO), sparking criticism from civil society organisations.