Malaysia will check wastewater samples from all flights arriving from China for Covid-19, Well being Minister Zaliha Mustafa mentioned, in preparation for a potential spike in instances following China’s transfer to dispose of pandemic restrictions.
Zaliha mentioned this was a part of the federal government’s efforts to strengthen surveillance at worldwide port of entries amid rising coronavirus instances in China.
“Wastewater samples might be despatched to the Nationwide Public Well being Laboratory for PCR assessments after which despatched for genome sequencing if detected constructive for Covid-19,” she mentioned in an announcement Friday.
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All worldwide arrivals, together with from China, will even be subjected to a fever screening in accordance to current well being protocols, the minister mentioned.
“These with detected fever or signs or have self-declared might be referred to the quarantine heart or to well being personnel for additional examination,” mentioned Zaliha.
Pre-pandemic, China was the third largest nation by way of vacationer arrivals in Malaysia. About 3.1 million Chinese language vacationers visited Malaysia in 2019, from the general 26.1 million arrivals, in keeping with information from Tourism Malaysia.