A DEPORTED Myanmar worker who has tested positive for Covid-19 was among those held at an Immigration Department depot prior to the movement-control order (MCO), said the Health Ministry today.

Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were around 1,400 detainees at the depot prior to March 18, when the MCO came into force.

Of the total, 437 were held in isolation in Block A.

“They (437 detainees) have since been deported, and testing was not done for this group,” he told a daily press conference on the virus.

Now that an infection has been detected, he said, efforts will be made in other countries to screen all those in the group.

The rest of the detainees have undergone testing, he added.

Dr Noor Hisham mentioned just one worker when asked about a report in The Irrawaddy that five of the six new cases in Myanmar since Saturday are migrants who were recently deported from Malaysia.

The portal said as of May 11, some 400 undocumented Myanmar workers were deported from Malaysia via two chartered flights after they were held at depots nationwide. – May 19, 2020.