KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — Weekly testing in primary schools on at least 10 per cent of the school’s population will be implemented as part of the National Covid-19 Testing Strategy (NTS) that kicks off on Monday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced today.

Khairy said these tests would be done on a rotation basis, as a precautionary measure to avoid new infection clusters from emerging.

“Students, as they are below the qualifying age to receive the vaccines, will need to undergo weekly testing, with at least a 10 per cent sample rate of the students within the school.

“They will have to be tested in turns with a different sample of students every week, and this is regardless if they are symptomatic or not.

“If they are symptomatic, they must definitely get tested,” he said.

He added that the NTS, which is set to be unveiled on Monday, will include guidelines on who needs to be tested, and when, in the event they are exposed to potential infection.

“The guidelines will be uploaded onto our websites from Monday, where it will clearly state when and who needs to be tested, and what type of tests they need to undergo as well, either the RT-PCR or through self-test kits,” he added.

To date, Malaysia has approved Covid-19 vaccinations for those aged 12 and above, with vaccinations for those below that age expected to begin next year.

So far, 82.9 per cent of Malaysia’s adolescent population is fully vaccinated, while 96 per cent of the adult population is fully immunised.

In total, 76.7 per cent of Malaysia’s total population is fully vaccinated.