Bentong Prison under EMCO

by AZALEA AZUAR / pic by BERNAMA 

BENTONG Prison in Pahang has been placed under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) until Feb 8 due to a spike in Covid-19 cases in the area.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (picture) said the enforcement will also be within the prison staff’s quarters.

“To date, a total of 615 positive cases of Covid-19 have been recorded involving 574 detainees, 34 staff and five family members.

“The Ministry of Health (MoH) has also confirmed a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases within a short period among the prison detainees,” he said in his daily Covid-19 press statement yesterday.

He added that the implementation of the EMCO would ensure MoH’s seamless effort in carrying out the Covid-19 screening process on all detainees, staff and close contacts.

“The standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the prison are also similar to the one previously announced, where movement in and out of the house and family visits are not allowed,” Ismail Sabri said.

Ismail Sabri added that a total of 550 individuals were arrested yesterday due to their failure of adhering to the SOPs.

From the total, 99 individuals were compounded, 42 were remanded while nine were guaranteed.

He said 130 individuals were not wearing face masks; 112 failed to provide record customer details for contact tracing; 68 did not practise social distancing; and 54 travelled interstate or district without permission.

He said 44 premises were also operating overtime and without permission.

In the meantime, the Human Resources Ministry has recorded 6,894 foreign workers who have undergone Covid-19 screening yesterday which resulted in 154 being tested positive.

Meanwhile, 704 individuals, who arrived from international flights, have been sent to quarantine centres all over Malaysia. More than 80 premises have been sanitised, where 35 of them were from red zones, two were from orange zones, six from yellow zones and two from green zones.