Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin recently announced another change to the close contact policy in Malaysia. Starting from 22 April 2022, those who have been identified as close contacts to a COVID-19 positive individual but didn’t show any symptoms will no longer have to go through quarantine.
They only need to adhere to the SOPs and wear a face mask within the next five days after being in contact with the COVID positive individual. If they start to experience any of the COVID-19 symptoms, they then should isolate themselves, perform self-tests, and follow the existing quarantine policy if test results are positive.
As a comparison, the current policy which was in place since 1 March 2022 dictates that only asymptomatic close contacts that have received a booster dose don’t have to go through quarantine. Even then, they still have to perform self-test on the first and third day after they have been identified as a close contact.
For symptomatic close contacts that have received a booster dose, they have to isolate themselves for five days. The same also applies to close contacts, both asymptomatic and symptomatic, that have not received their booster dose but have completed their primary dosage.
Current policy also stipulates seven days of quarantine for close contacts that have yet to complete their primary dosage or have not been vaccinated altogether. No changes have been made so far to the current quarantine policy for positive cases which is seven days for booster receivers and fully vaccinated individuals while those that are partially vaccinated or didn’t take the vaccine at all have to go through a ten day quarantine period.
(Source: Khairy Jamaluddin / Twitter.)
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