KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — The Health Ministry (MoH), effective today, has decided to drop the mandatory Covid-19 test for individuals travelling to Langkawi.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the decision was made after taking into account the low number of tourists who had tested positive, adding also that there were no Covid-19 clusters detected from the Langkawi travel bubble.

It also follows the decision by the government to allow interstate travel, he said.

Khairy said the condition for all Langkawi travellers to be fully vaccinated, however, remains, and he also encouraged them to undertake Covid-19 self-tests before embarking on their journey.

"Those who test positive and in isolation and observation or identified as close contacts to positive cases in quarantine or under surveillance order, are not allowed to travel,” he said in a statement today.

Ismail Sabri on Sunday said the government had agreed to allow individuals who had been fully vaccinated to travel to other states without having to obtain police permission starting on Monday.

He said the decision was made after the fully vaccinated rate of the adult population under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) hit 90 per cent.

Khairy said up to last Sunday, 54,341 tourists had taken the Covid-19 test with 216 or 0.4 per cent testing positive while in Langkawi, while only one showed symptoms and later tested positive.

"Investigations showed that the source of infection was not in Langkawi,” he said.

The government, when implementing the Langkawi tourism bubble project on Sept 16, made it mandatory for all visitors to be subjected to a Covid-19 screening test before entering the island. — Bernama