PUTRAJAYA (BERNAMA) – All travellers arriving from abroad, including from China, must go through a fever screening at the International Entry Points (PMA) in Malaysia.
Malaysian’s Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said if the travellers were detected to have a fever, being symptomatic or through self-declaration, will be referred to a quarantine centre or health authority for re-examination. “If they were suspected of having COVID-19, the COVID-19 test would be carried out,” she said in a statement yesterday.
She said this was one of the four main strategies of the ministry in improving preparedness to face any possible increase in cases and deaths due to the pandemic in Malaysia and changes in the China’s COVID-19 policy management.
As such, Dr Zaliha said surveillance measures at PMA will also be strengthened by taking aircraft sewage water samples from China.
“The sewage water samples will be sent to the National Public Health Laboratory for PCR testing and then sent for genome sequencing if detected positive for COVID-19,” she said.
To detect any new variants, she said all cases of diseases such as influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) patients seeking treatment at health facilities and have a history of travel to China or contact with individuals from China within 154 days must undergo the RTK-Ag test.
