Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri
KUCHING: Sarawakians returning from overseas need not be quarantined in Kuala Lumpur but must be quarantined at assigned centres in Sarawak upon reaching the state.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Secretariat said in a statement this was in line with the announcement made by Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob following a special committee meeting in Putrajaya yesterday.
“It has been decided that Sarawakians returning from overseas need not be quarantined in Kuala Lumpur but in Sarawak,” said the secretariat.
Ismail told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday that Sabahans and Sarawakians who arrived via Kuala Lumpur International Airport could remain in transit and continue their journey back to their home states.
“We will allow them to fly back to Sabah and Sarawak where they will be quarantined there.
“We are allowing this because the two state governments have come up with a policy where those who return from overseas as well as from Peninsular Malaysia will be quarantined,” he was quoted as saying.
The federal government has imposed a compulsory 14-day quarantine at government-designated quarantine centres for Malaysians returning from overseas effective yesterday (April 3).
SDMC chairman Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas had said on Thursday that all travellers entering Sarawak be it by land, air, or sea, would be placed under quarantine for 14 days at quarantine centres from tomorrow (April 5).
Uggah had said many Covid-19 cases in Sarawak are imported cases.
Travellers would be placed at quarantine centres based on their respective landing points.
Meanwhile, the secretariat said the compliance rate by Sarawakians to the movement control order (MCO) had improved by 0.5 per cent to 95.5 per cent.
On Thursday, the police arrested 32 people for flouting the MCO — 15 in Kuching, four in Miri, three in Padawan, three in Kota Samarahan, three in Bau, two in Sarikei, one in Bintulu, and one in Serian.
A total 44 were charged in court yesterday (Apri 3), with the most cases from Kota Samarahan (14), followed by Padawan (13), Serian (8), Kuching (6), Miri (1), Bintulu (1), and Meradong (1).