by AZREEN HANI/ pic by DR NOOR HISHAM FACEBOOK
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has extended the 14-day mandatory quarantine period for all passengers from India arriving in Malaysia via the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission, to 21 days.
This involves arriving flights on May 12 and May 13, Health DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement last night.
“Test results showed that seven out of 132 passengers were detected positive for Covid-19 with a positivity rate of 5.3,” Dr Noor Hisham said.
Taking into account the above results and the risk assessment conducted, the MOH has decided to extend the mandatory quarantine period for passengers arriving from India for the HADR mission on 12 May 2021 and also passengers arriving via repatriation flight on 13 May 2021, from 14 days. to 21 days,” he added.
According to him, upon landing at KLIA, these passengers were taken via a special route to the KLIA Air Disaster Unit (ADU) to undergo a health screening. No passengers were found to have symptoms, however they were taken swabs for the Covid-19 RT-PCR detection test.
The passengers are required to undergo this compulsory quarantine at quarantine stations designated by the Government.
“They also need to undergo RT-PCR laboratory test for the detection of COVID-19 according to the prescribed SOP”, the DG said .
Further, the MOH will monitor the situation, and will conduct a risk assessment to immediately look at the need to extend the quarantine period from 14 days to 21 days for all other passengers arriving from India (e.g. Malaysians). The existing restrictions for Non -Citizen passengers to Malaysia from India are still in effect as usual.
The flight brought home 132 people (64 men and 68 women) namely 117 Malaysians, eight ((Bruneians, four (4) Danes, two (2) Indians and one Indonesian.
Prior to this Dr Noor Hisham said three out of the four Covid-19 variants of concern recognised by The World Health Organization (WHO) are present in Malaysia, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the three coronavirus variants – South Africa, the UK and India, have been detected in both local and international transmissions, while the fourth variant, the Brazil variant, has yet to be detected in the country.
“There are four variants of concern at the moment, the UK, South Africa, India and Brazil. To date, Malaysia has yet to record any cases related to the Brazilian variant.
