THE Health Ministry’s duty with regard to migrants, both documented and undocumented, is to screen them for Covid-19.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this today when asked by the media about raids on undocumented migrants in buildings under an enhanced movement control order (EMCO).

Documentation issues are under the the purview of the Home Ministry, he said, and health authorities will only conduct Covid-19 screening.

“If they (migrants) come to us, then it is our job to ensure that, whether they are documented or not documented, or even if it our citizens, that they are not infected.

“So, that is the responsibility of the Health Ministry. Other than that, it is the responsibility of the Home Ministry or Immigration Department,” he told the daily press briefing on Covid-19 today.

The rounding-up of illegal migrants at Menara City One in Kuala Lumpur, which is under an EMCO, was carried out by the authorities today despite earlier promises by the government not to arrest them during the MCO period.

Noor Hisham said foreigners in areas under lockdown have been screened for the coronavirus.

“We have locked down some areas and tested all of them for the virus,” he said, adding: “Whether prisons or containment centres, we have to ensure they are free from infection.”

Sixty-nine new Covid-19 cases were reported today, taking the national toll to 6,071. Of the fresh cases, 57 are locals.

Meanwhile, 39 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours.

A 66-year-old Malaysian cancer patient died of Covid-19 yesterday, raising the country’s fatalities to 103. – May 1, 2020.