THE Health Ministry is concerned about the number of Malaysians coming back from abroad and the risk of importing Covid-19.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said if these returning Malaysians are not managed well, then there will be an exponential spike in the middle of April.

“What we fear are those Malaysians who went abroad. What we realise is that now students from overseas are coming back.

“So, this is another challenge for us as we may have imported cases. The first wave was related to tourists from China.

“Anyone coming into the country has the potential to carry the virus,” he said at the ministry’s daily press conference in Putrajaya today.

Noor Hisham said their main concern is imported cases and those who do not have symptoms will be quarantined and those with symptoms will be treated in hospital.

“This will take two weeks. This is the concerns we have and it is why we implemented the MCO.

“Now the figures could increase, because the students and those working overseas are coming back.”

He said initially they thought it was a problem in five countries – when it started spreading in China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran – but now it is almost 172 countries.

“Look at United States, Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries.

“Those coming back from those countries have the possibility of bringing the infection.” – April 4, 2020.