Health ministry sticking to 10-day quarantine despite new Covid-19 mutation
The Health Ministry will stick to imposing a 10-day quarantine on foreign travelers arriving in the country, including those from the United Kingdom, instead of 14 days.
This is despite the UK announcing a strict lockdown recently following a new Covid-19 mutation which led to a 70 percent increased infection rate.
European countries were also reported to have barred travelers from the United Kingdom over concerns of the new Covid-19 variant, which was said could spread more easily and more quickly...
The Health Ministry will stick to imposing a 10-day quarantine on foreign travelers arriving in the country, including those from the United Kingdom, instead of 14 days.
This is despite the UK announcing a strict lockdown recently following a new Covid-19 mutation which led to a 70 percent increased infection rate.
European countries were also reported to have barred travelers from the United Kingdom over concerns of the new Covid-19 variant, which was said could spread more easily and more quickly.
According to Malaysia's Health Ministry director general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, there's not much difference between 10 days and 14 days.
"We have seen the data. In terms of a quarantine period between 10 days and 14 days, there's not much difference. What is important is the quarantine must be at least 10 days.
"Symptoms could be traced in the first week, but if we implement a seven-day quarantine, it will be too risky," he said at a media conference in Putrajaya today.
Noor Hisham announced the reduction of quarantine length for foreign travellers from 14 days to 10 days on Dec 13, saying that countries such as Britain, Germany, and Belgium had already implemented the 10-day quarantine.
The decision was based on clinical data from across the globe, he said.
Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said the ministry had identified a Covid-19 mutation labelled as A701B based on 60 samples obtained from patients in the Benteng LD cluster in Sabah.
The mutation, he said, is similar to those traced from countries such as Australia, South Africa, and the Netherlands.
"We are not sure if it has high infectivity," he said, adding that prior to this, the ministry had also traced a Covid-19 mutation labelled as 614G in the Sivagangga cluster in Kedah, as well as from cases in Johor and Sabah in August.
He assured that the ministry will continue to monitor the Covid-19 variants including the latest mutation in the United Kingdom.
