Individuals arriving from Sabah must undergo screening from tomorrow - Health DG

Individuals who have just arrived from Sabah must undergo screening at the international entry points (PMA) starting tomorrow until Oct 10, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

He said it was necessary to implement infection prevention and control measures on individuals with travel history to Sabah in efforts to monitor and reduce risk of COVID-19 infection transmission among them.

"All of them must download and register with the MySejahtera application, check-in using this application upon arrival at the country’s PMA and undergo the respiratory symptomatic screening and COVID-19 detection test.

"They are also required to abide by the home surveillance order (HSO) as all individuals arriving at the PMA will be given the HSO letter and a quarantine bracelet," he said in a statement today.

He said the HSO date will start from the date of arrival at the PMA until the laboratory results are obtained, and the HSO release will be issued if the laboratory test results come back negative.

Dr Noor Hisham said if there are individuals who need to continue their journey to their homes by public transport such as taxis and Grab services, a letter of permission to go to the designated address would be given on that day.

If anyone of them experience symptoms of respiratory tract infection within 14 days from the date of return, the person should undergo a repeat of the COVID-19 screening, he said.

"Citizens and non-citizens who return from Sabah are given exemption on the COVID-19 screening fee," he said.

He said the period for infection prevention and control measures on individuals who have just returned from Sabah would be reviewed from time to time, based on risk of infection transmission assessment at that time adding that should there be changes, the public would be informed.

Yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham reported 10 people were detected COVID-19 positive after returning from Sabah since Sept 20 to 25, and today 11 more positive cases were detected in Peninsular Malaysia after they returned from Sabah.

The number of COVID-19 cases and clusters in Sabah is still increasing and four districts have been identified as red zones after recording more than 40 cases in the last 14 days.

-- BERNAMA