THE 147 foreign workers who escaped from quarantine centres have tested negative for Covid-19, said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“They were quarantined because they came into close contact with Covid-19 positive patients. But these people tested negative,” said the health director-general at his daily press briefing in Putrajaya today.

He said the Health Ministry has lodged police reports on the matter.

“This is not new as we also had China nationals who ran away from quarantine centres during the first wave,” Noor Hisham said.

It was reported today that a group of foreign workers had run away from quarantine after they were swabbed for tests.

The group of workers were alleged to have been close contacts with infected workers from the Pavilion Embassy construction site.

Last week, 28 foreign workers from the site had tested positive for Covid-19.

The government has identified foreign workers as the next high-risk group to test following the tabligh and tahfiz student clusters. – May 6, 2020.