PUTRAJAYA, Dec 18 — Health Director-General Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan has today dismissed public concern over the rise of Covid-19 cases from the entry of foreign tourists including from China.
In a press conference, he said there has been no new variant or sub-variant of the coronavirus detected in Malaysia and the recent spike was caused by those that are currently circulating here.
"I know a lot of concerns that say we are receiving tourists from outside, especially from China," he said.
"At the moment we are monitoring and there are no, new sub-variants, even from China. Anything we find is a circulating virus, which is already there. There are no new viruses.”
In the same press conference, his deputy in charge of public health, Datuk Dr Norhayati Rusli, said Covid-19 monitoring will continue at Malaysia's entry points as a security measure.
"Since the start of the pandemic until now, we continue to monitor at the entrance. This means that whether it is a Malaysian citizen or a foreigner who enters Malaysia, we will monitor them.
"If you look at the entrances, we have a thermal scanner as a sentinel sight, where those who are detected with symptoms, they will be taken aside, not only for Covid-19 but for other diseases as well,” she said.
Malaysia recorded a total of 20,696 new Covid-19 cases last week, with 28 deaths.
Earlier, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad ruled out any return of lockdowns such as the movement control order (MCO) after an increase of 62.2 per cent in Covid-19 cases last week.
He said the health ministry will instead reinstate the Test, Report, Isolate, Inform, Seek (TRIIS) framework to prevent any outbreak.
