THE Health Ministry has screened 2,679 people for Covid-19 in the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster, which accounted for a bulk of the new infections reported today at 40 cases.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in the weekly health presser today that 34 of the 40 cases reported in this cluster today were prisoners while six were family members of prison staff. 

This brings the cumulative number of cases in the cluster that has spread to the Lahad Datu district police headquarters and Tawau Prison to 83. 

Earlier today, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said an administrative enhanced movement-control order has been enforced at the Tawau Prison and prison quarters until September 25. 

Touching on standard operating procedures for prisons, Noor Hisham said new inmates should be separated from old ones. 

“If it is possible, new inmates should be housed separately from older ones. We also need to conduct the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test on them,” he said.

“Even if the test is negative, we should not place the new and old inmates together because the incubation period is 14 days. 

“We can only put them together after 14 days,” he added.

He said the same applies for immigration detention centres. 

Noor Hisham said it was important to ensure old inmates are not exposed or come into contact with the new inmates until the 14-day incubation period is over. 

Two undocumented migrants detained at the Lahad Datu police station and later housed as the Tawau Prison are this cluster’s index cases.

The two were asymptomatic and later tested positive for Covid-19. – September 10, 2020.