PETALING JAYA: The discontinuation of home surveillance order (HSO) for those with Covid-19 will come into effect on July 15, the Health Ministry said in a statement yesterday.
It also said that those who test positive will no longer be required to report their Covid-19 self-test results to MySejahtera.
“Just like other countries in the world, Malaysia has been facing the Covid-19 pandemic since 2020.
“After more than four years of facing the Covid-19 pandemic with several measures to contain it, the country is now in a good position and is ready to move to the living with Covid-19 phase,” the ministry said.
The ministry will continue to monitor the latest Covid-19 situation in the global and Malaysian stage.
The Heightened Alert System (HAS), which was used to monitor the Covid-19 situation from the early stage of the pandemic, is still in use to this day.
The number of infections dropped 77.9% to 3,810 last week compared to 17,256 in the first week of the year.
No new variants have been detected in Malaysia.
The variants currently found in the country are the Omicron and its sub-variants.
Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr Azizan Abdul Aziz said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had also declared that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency and global threat.
“However, Covid-19 can still cause severe symptoms in older persons and those with comorbid conditions,” she said.
Meanwhile, health experts have welcomed the decision to discontinue with HSO citing evolving circumstances where some standard operating procedures (SOP) may no longer be relevant.
Universiti Putra Malaysia’s public health medicine expert Prof Dr Malina Osman said the move was timely as quarantine orders were no longer essential.
“We have to treat Covid-19 like other immunisable diseases.
“Some of the pandemic measures may no longer be relevant,” she said.
Public health expert Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar supported the decision, noting the high vaccination coverage and milder infections.
“Currently, Covid-19 is endemic and the disease is quite similar to the common flu,” he said, adding that maintaining excessive quarantine measures might not be productive.
Authorities should, however, continue surveillance to detect any serious new variants early, Dr Zainal said.
He added that there might also be a risk of false security among the public due to decreased testing.
