KUCHING, July 3 ― The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) will be investigating the cause of the recurrence of Covid-19 cases at the Semuja Immigration Detention Depot, said the committee’s adviser Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
In a Facebook post last night, Dr Sim said the 59 cases detected among the detainees at the depot saw Serian district recording 78 Covid-19 cases yesterday which was the state’s highest for that day.
“(This is the) second time this year (it happened there). (We are) Waiting for further investigation,” he said.
Dr Sim, who is also Local Government and Housing Minister, said the contained environment at drug rehabilitation centres (Puspen), prisons and detention depots makes them high-risk Covid-19 areas despite having standard operating procedures (SOP) in place there.
He revealed that apart from Semuja Immigration Detention Depot, 11 cases were also recorded yesterday at the Simpang Tiga Immigration Detention Lockup, which were registered under Kuching district.
“Stricter enforcement of SOP, more regular surveillance swab (to be done) and eventually still need vaccination for everyone newly brought in (to such places),” he said.
Meanwhile, Serian MP Datuk Seri Richard Riot said he was informed that foreign inmates brought in from other prisons were among those tested positive at Semuja Immigration Detention Depot.
He revealed that based on information given to him, the foreign inmates were transferred from Sri Aman and Sibu Prisons.
“This had caused Covid-19 cases in Serian to shoot up yesterday. From the 78 cases recorded in Serian, 59 were from the detention depot and detected among those who were brought in from other prisons outside of Serian.
“I received calls from people panicking over the high Covid-19 cases in Serian, and so I had to explain the situation to them,” said Riot, who is also Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to East Asia (Japan, Taiwan and South Korea).
SDMC in its Covid-19 update yesterday revealed 59 positive cases or 75.64 per cent of overall 78 cases in Serian had involved foreign detainees placed at the Semuja detention centre before they are sent back to their original countries.
It added that the group of detainees were mostly from Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.
It was not yet known if another cluster would be declared at this detention centre.
On March 19, a Covid-19 cluster was declared at the Semuja Immigration Detention Depot after 99 foreign detainees were tested positive for the coronavirus.
Called the Semuja Immigration Detention Depot Cluster, this cluster had recorded a total of 447 Covid-19 cases but there were no deaths.
This cluster ended on April 11 after not recording new cases in a space of 28 days. ― Borneo Post
