PETALING JAYA: The physical reunion sessions between inmates and their families in conjunction with Christmas will be cancelled at all prison institutions, says the Prison Department.
Instead, the reunion sessions will be replaced with Skype sessions and prepaid telephone services to be provided at all its prison institutions.
"This measure is to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in all prison institutions," the department said in a statement Wednesday (Dec 23).
This comes after a wave of Covid-19 infections were detected in Kedah, Perak, Sabah, Melaka and Penang over the past few months, which had contributed to the high number of cases being reported in the country.
As recently as last week, the number of Covid-19 cases rose in Melaka due to the influx of inmates from two outstation prisons in Kajang and Sungai Buloh.
In Sabah, the Kepayan Prison and Sandakan Prison clusters led to more than 1,500 Covid-19 cases while at the Alor Setar prison in Kedah, 1,443 infections were detected.
Deputy Home Minister I Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Mohamed Said had previously said that the Prisons Department was implementing a stricter standard operating procedure (SOP) to curb the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.
This includes requiring prisoners to have the results of their Covid-19 screening test before they can be accepted at any prison.
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