PAS urges govt to temporarily bar China arrivals amid Covid-19 surge

 

PAS has urged the government to temporarily bar entry to arrivals from China in light of the ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases over there.

The party’s information chief, Khairil Nizam Khirudin, said the government should be vigilant after China allowed its citizens to travel abroad while the country was reporting up to 60,000 new Covid-19 cases weekly.

“Malaysia should learn from its past experiences of failing to prevent the entry of tourists, which carries a high risk of spreading Covid-19 here.

“PAS suggests the government temporarily delay arrivals of tourists from China to monitor developments over there and the impact of Chinese travellers to other countries already accepting their arrivals, before allowing them to enter Malaysia,” the Jerantut MP said in a statement today. 

Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa previously said her ministry will adopt new measures in response to the developments in China and the possibility of new Covid-19 variants emerging from the country’s outbreak.

She said all visitors from China will be screened and those who are found to have a fever or other symptoms will be referred for further testing.

Further, all patients suffering from an influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections who visited China within 14 days, or have been in close contact with someone who visited China in the same period, will be subjected to RTK-Ag Covid-19 tests. - Mkini