Effective from Monday (10 Feb), anyone arriving in Sarawak from Singapore will be required to undergo an immediate self-imposed 14-day home quarantine, according to State Disaster Management Committee chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
He said the decision was made in view of the development in Singapore where the island republic’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) had issued an Orange warning level over the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection.
“According to DORSCON, the (orange warning) level, which is the second-highest warning stage, indicates that the disease is severe and spreads easily from person to person but has not spread widely in Singapore and is being contained,” he said in a statement issued after the committee meeting today.
With MOH’s latest announcement of newly confirmed cases, Singapore has 45 cases of infection as of Monday.
Uggah, who is also Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, said the occurrence of the 2019-nCoV clusters in Singapore which happened in a church, a medical product shop and a hotel after an international conference, was indeed worrying.
“The victims ranged from church goers to taxi drivers, private hire drivers, tour guide and a teacher. They had not been to China but were affected in these places,” he said.
On the disease latest development in the state, he said between Jan 10 and yesterday there had been 60 Patient Under Investigation ( PUI) cases.
“We have 43 negative cases and 17 more are pending laboratory testings while 15 of these 43 cases involving Malaysian nationals are recorded at the Sarawak General Hospital, eight at Sibu Hospital, seven in Miri and four in Bintulu,” he added.
Malaysia reported its 18th case and the sixth citizen of the country on Monday (10 Feb) — to be diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan, a city in central mainland China.
The coronavirus epidemic has killed more than 900 people and infected more than 40,000, most of them in mainland China.
