KUCHING: With immediate effect, arrivals to Sarawak from Singapore will have to be quarantined for 14 days at home, State Disaster Management Committee chairman Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said on Monday (Feb 10).



The decision was made after Singapore raised its Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level to Orange last Friday amid a global novel coronavirus outbreak. The country has 43 cases of the virus as of Sunday, including 22 locally transmitted cases.



“According to DORSCON, the (orange warning) level, which is the second-highest warning stage, indicates that the disease is severe and spreads easily from person to person but has not spread widely in Singapore and is being contained,” Uggah said in a statement.



Uggah, who is also Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, said that the emergence of several novel coronavirus clusters in Singapore was "worrying".

“The victims ranged from church goers to taxi drivers, private hire drivers, tour guide and a teacher. They had not been to China but were affected in these places,” he said.



Uggah said the committee would engage bodies representing various churches, temples, mosques, taxi associations, hoteliers' associations and long-distance bus associations, among others, to get their support in the fight against the infection, particularly in preventing its spread.

Between Jan 10 and Feb 9, there have been 60 suspect cases of coronavirus in Sarawak, he said.

"We have 43 negative cases and 17 more are pending laboratory testings while 15 of these 43 cases involving Malaysian nationals are recorded at the Sarawak General Hospital, eight at Sibu Hospital, seven in Miri and four in Bintulu,” he added.



Malaysia on Monday announced its sixth citizen case of the novel coronavirus, a 31-year-old man who worked in Macau.

The man had travelled to mainland China before returning to Malaysia on Feb 1, said Malaysia's Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah in a press statement.



Worldwide, the coronavirus has killed more than 900 people and infected more than 40,000.

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