The Health Ministry today announced that students from Sars-hit countries and Filipino workers will be placed under a 10-day quarantine upon their entry to the country.

Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said the decision, effective immediately, followed a recommendation from the task force overseeing the country's response to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome to protect other students from becoming infected with the pneumonia-like respiratory illness.

"Students and foreign workers from Sars-affected countries will have to undergo strict medical observation and those who are sick will be sent for medical treatment," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Two new cases

Malaysia, meanwhile, reported two more suspected Sars cases o­n Monday, including a 19-year-old Japanese tourist who was in transit back to Japan after a three-week visit to Singapore, which has been badly-hit by the virus which has no known vaccine nor cure.

A 20-year-old tourist guide who brought a group of tourists from Taiping to Singapore is also suspected of having contracted the illness, but his diagnosis was not yet confirmed.

Both suspected Sars patients are in stable condition, the Health Ministry's deputy director general, Ismail Merican, said.

Two people have died from seven Sars infections in Malaysia, though the virus' impact o­n business has been much greater. -

AFP