DG Hisham: 23 New COVID-19 Clusters Originated From People Who Went To Sabah

According to Malay Mail, a total of 23 new COVID-19 clusters were caused by index cases that had a travel history to Sabah.

394 positive cases have been detected so far since 22 September and 228 of them are travellers who arrived before 27 September.

A total of 18,478 people have been screened as of 13 October.

“Even though the Health Ministry has conducted COVID-19 screenings against all travellers from Sabah since 27 September 2020 and issued Home Surveillance Orders (HSO) until a negative result is provided, cases and clusters related to this group are still being reported,” Noor Hisham said during his daily press conference.

On 27 September, the government enforced mandatory COVID-19 screenings for those returning from Sabah at all international and domestic entry points but also decided that they did not need to undergo self-quarantine if they tested negative.

However, about two weeks later on 11 October, travellers were made to undergo mandatory home quarantine of 14-days by the government regardless of their results.

“They will be given a HSO for 14 days upon their arrival, a pink wristband and also told to monitor their health for symptoms via the Home Assessment Tool (HAT) on the MySejahtera app.”