KUCHING: Sarawak prohibits the entry of travellers who have been to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan in the last 30 days effective today (May 26).
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) announced this in its daily Covid-19 update today.
The committee said the initiative, which was taken in view of the growing concern over new variants of concerns (VOCs), aimed to prevent them from spreading in the state.
“To prevent the spread of the new VOCs, the SDMC has decided to restrict the entry of travellers and those who have been to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan within 30 days to Sarawak effective May 26,” it said.
Recently, Health Director General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah expressed his growing concern over the new VOCs.
Most of the individuals infected with these variants do not show the symptoms that the public were told to be aware of initially, such as cough, fever and loss of taste and smell. Now, symptoms can be anything from joint pains to lethargy and loss of appetite.
These VOCs also spread rapidly to the lungs and are linked to higher death rates.
The VOCs that have been detected in Malaysia so far are the UK variant (B.1.1.7), South Africa variant (B.1.351) and most recently, the India variant (B.1.617).
