KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is considering the need to require inbound travellers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before they are allowed to enter Malaysia.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry is not relying only on a single method to screen travellers, including those from China, which is currently experiencing a Covid-19 surge.
He said several other conditions are being discussed, including requiring them to be fully-vaccinated.
"It won't be limited to just one method as many other countries are still monitoring the situation before deciding on a course of action.
"Among the methods will include requiring them to be fully-vaccinated," he told Berita Harian.
He was responding to criticism by health experts that the ministry's screening methods for travelers, namely temperature checks and testing waste water samples from inbound flights from China, were inadequate to stem a surge of infections.
Yesterday, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa announced that inbound travelers, including those from China, would have to undergo temperature checks at international entry points. The authorities, she said, would also collect waste water samples from aircraft arriving from the republic.
Dr Zaliha said the samples would be sent for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and if the samples test positive for Covid-19, genome sequencing would be done to determine the variant.
Experts had recommended that Malaysia also impose mandatory RT-PCR Covid-19 tests on inbound travellers.
Dr Noor Hisham said the two testing methods are only being done to round up the current monitoring system.
China recently announced that it was relaxing its Covid-19 management restrictions from Jan 8, including reopening the republic's borders as well as dropping quarantine requirements for inbound travellers.
The decision was made even as China was experiencing a surge in infections.
To date, a number of countries, including the United States, India, Italy, Taiwan and South Korea have announced several requirements, including negative Covid-19 tests, for China travelers.