TAWAU, July 23 — A man lied about travelling overseas and threw away his wristband at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) before continuing his journey to Tawau to avoid home quarantine.

Tawau Health Officer Dr G. Navindran said the man, in his 30s, made the confession after he was investigated at the Tawau District Health Office on July 21.

The man had contacted the office to say he had lost the wristband but investigations found that he had given false information when filling in the health declaration form at KLIA to go to Tawau.

The media had previously reported that several wristbands had been found in KLIA which were believed to have been discarded by travellers who returned from overseas trips as they did not want to go through the quarantine.

Meanwhile, Dr Navindran said the Health Office had completed Covid-19 screenings on 500 staff of the Tawau Prisons Department who were exposed to the pandemic after one of the staff was confirmed positive on Tuesday.

"We also conducted contact tracing of the male patient who was found positive, including conducting screening tests on traders at the Sri Tanjung Market,” he said, adding that this was a local case.

Screening tests conducted on the patient’s family members and close contacts were found to be negative. — Bernama