CORONAVIRUS | Higher education students returning to Sabah need no longer undergo mandatory quarantine upon arriving due to the state’s inability to house them at quarantine centres.
Instead, the students will have to undergo swab tests for Covid-19 before being allowed to leave campus and return home.
Speaking at a press conference in Putrajaya today, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this was as these students were generally considered to be free from coronavirus after spending over a month on campus without infection.
Only students whose swab test results come back positive for Covid-19 would be sent to the hospital for treatment.
“Parents were asking why their children were not sent home (to Sabah). I wish to inform them that an issue has arisen in Sabah whereby it cannot cope with the number of students as the mandatory quarantine centres lack space.
“Even so, the issue has been settled. The Health Ministry, the Higher Education Ministry and Sabah government have reached an agreement... that is, we consider these students are coming from green areas as they have gone more than a month without incident (of being infected).
“The Health Ministry assumes they are free from Covid-19... whereas before all students must be quarantined, we agree that (this time) the students must undergo Covid-19 swab tests before being allowed to return home,” Ismail said.
Overall, Ismail said 7,384 students from Sabah and 2,207 students from Sarawak have yet to be sent home from their campuses in Peninsula Malaysia.
As of yesterday, he said the Higher Education Ministry has facilitated the return of 1,646 students to their hometowns after almost two months of being mostly restricted on campus or within their accommodations.
On May 13, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah confirmed that two university students in Sabah were found to have contracted Covid-19 despite undergoing mandatory quarantine.
They returned to Sabah earlier this month when the government first allowed tertiary students to go home. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.