Intl travellers to cover testing and quarantine costs, mandatory to purchase Covid-19 insurance

File photo for illustration purposes only. Photo credit: Pixabay

By Lian Cheng

KUCHING, March 28: International visitors to Sarawak from Singapore or are transiting through Singapore who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated or test positive following the RTK-Antigen testing will have to be quarantined where they will bear the costs themselves.

According to the latest standard operating procedures (SOPs), non-Malaysian travellers are required to purchase Covid-19 insurance so that the quarantine cost may be covered.

They are required to take the RTK-Antigen test at the entry point, where they will have to pay for the service to the healthcare lab service provider.

For those who are fully vaccinated, as long as they take the RT-PCR test two days before departure and the result is negative, they will be exempted from the RTK-Antigen test at the point of entry.

The following table provided by the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) shows the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ and ‘partially vaccinated’.

SDMC has released its definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ and ‘partially vaccinated’.

All international travellers entering Sarawak are required to download MySejahtera and fill in the pre-departure form under the ‘Traveller’ Icon. The pre-departure documents required include RT-PCR negative result (taken two days before departure), vaccination certificate, and Covid-19 travel insurance for non-Malaysians.

Travellers who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated and show negative RTK-Antigen results are still required to be quarantined for five days, where they will bear the costs.

Those who are fully vaccinated and show negative results may enter Sarawak to proceed to their domestic destinations.

Days of quarantine for fully vaccinated or partially vaccinated international travellers.

For fully vaccinated travellers who tested positive in the RTK-Antigen test, they are required to be quarantined for seven days, while those partially vaccinated or unvaccinated will have to be quarantined for 10 days.

Those who tested positive and fall under Category 1 to 2 may be quarantined at home if they have one here. However, should they have no home, they will have to be quarantined at low-risk treatment and quarantine centres (PKRC).

For the travellers who suffer more severe Covid-19 symptoms under Category 3 to 5, they will be quarantined at PKRC as well.

For transit travellers from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) or Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2), Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) or Senai International Airport (of Johore), only travellers with low-risk status on their MySejahtera are allowed to proceed to transit into Sarawak.

Travellers with other status on their MySejahtera, including ‘Travellers Card’ and ‘Home Surveillance Order’, are not allowed to proceed to transit into Sarawak.

They are required to undergo RTK-Antigen professional testing within 24 hours upon arrival at the first point of entry before they are allowed to proceed to transit to their domestic destination.

According to SDMCā€™s SOPs, children below 6 years old are not required to do RTK-Antigen testing upon arrival. ā€” DayakDaily