GEORGE TOWN, May 6 — The implementation of stricter standard operating procedures (SOPs) has succeeded in preventing the spread of Covid-19 in three of the state’s prisons, with two reporting zero cases so far.

Penang Prisons Department director Roslan Mohamed said the state’s remand prison only recorded five Covid-19 cases and all the inmates who tested positive had been isolated.

"Previously, there were 100 to 400 cases reported in the three prisons. However, with stricter SOPs in place, the Seberang Perai Prison in Jawi and Satellite Prison in Bukit Mertajam have not reported any new cases so far.

"We make sure all inmates are screened before they are sent to the prisons, where they are isolated from other inmates until the results are out,” he told reporters when met at the state police contingent headquarters today.

He represented the Prisons Department to receive food aid for frontliners from State Housing, Local Government and Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo.

Also present was Penang Police chief Datuk Sahabudin Abd Manan.

Roslan also said that about 99 per cent of the 329 Penang Prisons Department staff had been vaccinated while the rest could not be vaccinated due to health reasons.

Meanwhile, Sahabudin said that about 86 per cent of the 6,022 police officers and personnel in the state had been vaccinated, and that they were all frontliners.

"The Health Ministry is committed to completing the vaccination for the force as we need to mobilise them for field duties,” he said. — Bernama