KUALA LUMPUR: The 14-day mandatory quarantine period for all passengers from India arriving in Malaysia via the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission on May 12 and repatriation flight on May 13, has been extended to 21 days.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the decision was made after seven of the 132 passengers (5.3 per cent) on the repatriation flight on May 13 tested positive for Covid-19.
“Taking into account the above results and the risk assessment carried out, the MOH (Ministry of Health) decided to extend the mandatory quarantine period for the passengers involved.
“Based on this situation, the MOH will also immediately conduct a risk assessment to look at the need to extend the quarantine period from 14 days to 21 days for all other passengers who arrive from India,” he said in a statement last night.
He added that non-citizen passengers from India were still barred from entering the country.
Dr Noor Hisham also urged Malaysians to cooperate in preventing the entry of a new variant from India, namely the B.1.617 variant, which is reported to spread faster and cause more serious symptoms, especially among individuals aged below 50.
The repatriation flight to bring back Malaysians from New Delhi and Mumbai, India, arrived safely at the Air Emergency Unit of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 1 am on May 13.
The mission, which used a special charter aircraft, brought home a total of 132 people involving 117 Malaysians and six dependents, as well as a permanent resident of Malaysia and eight Bruneians. – Bernama
