Over 1,800 Returnees Under Home Quarantine Didn't Take Second COVID-19 Test After 13 Days
This comes after more and more returnees with a hospital wristband are being spotted in public spaces.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 24 Jul 2020, 04:46 PM
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said about 10% of returning individuals from overseas did not undergo second COVID-19 test towards the end of their quarantine period
In a press conference yesterday, 23 July, he said that to date, the total number of returnees or Persons Under Surveillance (PUS) required to undergo the Home Surveillance Order (HSO) is 31,674.
Of the amount, 18,416 have completed their two-week quarantine period.
"However, 10% of them did not undergo the COVID-19 test on the 13th day of their quarantine period," Dr Noor Hisham said.
Due to these 1,800 returnees, who were given a pink wristband, skipping their second COVID-19 test, it's not clear if they are clear from the coronavirus
Dr Noor Hisham contributed the recent rise of daily COVID-19 cases to individuals sporting pink tags being caught outside of homes and a general drop in adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Since 1 July, a total of 15 new clusters have been found in the country.
He revealed that between 7 July and 20 July, 24.8% of those under the HSO did not use the Home Assessment Tool found in the MySejahtera mobile app.
"The Home Assessment Tool is a feature used by returnees to conduct self-assessment that must be done every day while being quarantined at home for 14 days," the Health DG said.
Meanwhile, based on the data provided by MySejahtera app, Dr Noor Hisham noted that Malaysians no longer adhere to SOPs as strictly as they did in the past
Although the number of MySejahtera registrations increases over the past three weeks, he said the number of check-ins at restaurants, supermarkets, and other places is in a downward trend.
"This shows that Malaysians are increasingly not adhering to SOPs," he added.
"Premise owners and the public are reminded to continue observing the SOPs to ensure that we can break the COVID-19 chain in the community."
He urged the members of the public to take an active role in reporting those who breach the SOPs to the police
