PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry is looking into the possibility of reducing the quarantine duration for foreigners entering the country.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this when commenting on the policy and standard operating procedure (SOP) in place for foreigners entering Malaysia.
"As per the SOP now, they (foreigners) will be tested at the airport as well as being required to undergo quarantine for 14 days.
"We are still following the old policy of 14 days quarantine, and they will be tested for the virus on day one and also on day 13.
"However, we are in the process of reviewing more data to show whether we can actually reduce the quarantine period from 14 days to 12 or 10 days, for example," he said at a press conference here today.
He said there were countries that had reduced the quarantine period to seven or 10 days, but the Health ministry would have to review the data and study the possible risks associated before coming to a decision.
"Certainly, when we shorten the quarantine period, for example to 10 days, the risk involved is probably about five per cent.
"So we need to manage the risk. But we are reviewing the data before we can change any of our policies," he added.