Sarawak exempts fully vaccinated individuals arriving from any part of Malaysia from quarantine

KUCHING: Sarawak has decided that fully vaccinated individuals will be exempted from the mandatory quarantine upon arrival in the state from other parts of Malaysia.

The decision, which comes into effect on Thursday (Sept 16), takes into consideration the increased level of vaccination in the country, said the state disaster management committee.

It said individuals must still apply for entry via the EnterSarawak app or website, fill in the e-health declaration form and submit proof of their vaccination status.

They must also provide a negative result from a PCR test within three days before travel.

"Children below 18 entering Sarawak with their fully vaccinated parents will be exempted from quarantine.

"However, they are advised to do self-monitoring at home for 10 days," the committee said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 15).

Individuals are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer, Sinovac or AstraZeneca vaccines, or 28 days after the single-dose CanSino or Janssen vaccines.

The committee said unvaccinated individuals or those who have not completed their vaccination must still undergo a 10-day quarantine at a designated quarantine hotel upon arrival in Sarawak.

It added that there were no changes to the entry guidelines for those arriving from overseas, which includes a mandatory quarantine requirement.

Meanwhile, the committee said Sarawak's high number of 4,709 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday was due to a backlog of results from tests carried out from Sept 10 to 14.

It said 99.9% of the new cases were in Category One (no symptoms) and Category Two (mild symptoms) while there were seven cases in the more severe Category Three to Category Five.

The state also reported 12 deaths on Wednesday, including seven who were brought in dead.

Sarawak's cumulative tally of cases now stands at 167,012 with a death toll of 651.