Those under home quarantine can apply for govt quarantine centres: MOH
COVID-19 | Individuals who have been advised to self-quarantine at home but do not have suitable premises can apply to use government quarantine facilities.
This came after some raised their concern over quarantining themselves at home, particularly for those who live with the elderly and small children...
COVID-19 | Individuals who have been advised to self-quarantine at home but do not have suitable premises can apply to use government quarantine facilities.
This came after some raised their concern over quarantining themselves at home, particularly for those who live with the elderly and small children.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said they can make the request with the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
"For those who are told to self-quarantine at home but do not have a room or space that is suitable for that purpose, they can make an application to Nadma for consideration," he said at his weekly press conference on the domestic Covid-19 situation in Putrajaya today.
Noor Hisham was answering a question on whether individuals who had tested negative for Covid-19 and had no history of close contacts with positive patients, could get admitted to quarantine centres gazetted by the government.
On Saturday, the government announced that all arrivals from Sabah must be tested for Covid-19.
Noor Hisham had said that the move was necessitated by the surge in Covid-19 cases that were linked to travel history to Sabah. The state has experienced a wave of new cases since the beginning of the month.
The returnees are required to undergo home quarantine until their results are ready, instead of the full 14 days as required for overseas returnees.
According to the Health Ministry guidelines for handling Covid-19 suspected cases, an individual must meet several criteria to be allowed to undergo home quarantine.
Among them include having a separate bedroom, preferably with an en-suite bathroom; access to food and other necessities; and able to stay away from high-risk household members like young children, senior citizens, pregnant women and persons with chronic diseases.
Sabah returnees found negative advised to complete quarantine
Noor Hisham also called for the government to start imposing a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travellers who had visited Sabah, given the spike in positive Covid-19 cases linked to the state.
On this, the top Health Ministry official clarified that they only ended the home quarantine order for those who tested negative, asymptomatic and did not have close contacts with positive patients.
These individuals are not considered as persons under investigation or persons under surveillance, he added.
"This is the same treatment given to cases in other states, like the Sivagangga cluster in Kedah. Although the area was declared a red zone, we never quarantined those who returned from Kedah for 14 days.
"We did conduct tests (on those from red zones), but we did not quarantine them. So, we have to make sure that what we impose on travellers who came from Sabah the same treatment we did with other states," he said.
He was referring to the Sivagangga cluster which involved a total of 45 positive cases in several districts in Kedah and Penang, until it was declared as non-active on Sept 7.
However, according to Noor Hisham, those who have been released from home quarantine are advised to do self-quarantine for 14 days from their arrival date and follow all procedures required by the ministry to prevent infection.
They are also urged to get tested for the second time on their 13th day of quarantine.
The director-general touched on the issue of congestion at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) recently, as arrivals from Sabah had to queue to get tested for Covid-19.
He said that the problem only happened on Saturday, but had since been rectified with extra manpower and counters.
Noor Hisham advised travellers to have patience and understanding, saying that the requirement is for their benefit.
On another matter, he told reporters that the authorities will no longer record the death of positive patients in Covid-19 fatality statistics if their death had nothing to do with the virus.
This is according to the advice issued recently by the World Health Organisation.
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