SARAWAKIANS travelling to the peninsula, Sabah or Labuan for any kind of businesses will not be quarantined upon return, nor do they need to take the Covid-19 test if they return within two days.

The new policy announced by state disaster management committee chairman Douglas Uggah Embas today applies to both public and private sector employees.

Uggah said if the trip exceeded the two days, they will still be exempted from quarantine, but will be required to take the swab test.

Uggah, who is also deputy chief minister, said since the exemption is for business purposes only, the travelling employee must have a letter from his or her employer.

If the traveller is a civil servant, he or she must have a letter from their head of department.

The new policy comes following Sarawak’s status as a “green” zone – having had no new cases of local Covid-19 transmissions in the last 14 days.

Uggah also said the committee has accepted the recommendations of the state Housing and Local Government Ministry to allow “open concept” karaokes held at social and official gatherings, at music cafes and bistros, starting tomorrow.

Another easing of restrictions is the lifting of the travel ban between the rest of the state and the three yellow zone areas – the districts of Kuching, Samarahan and Serian – effective midnight tonight.

Truncated business hours in these three districts will also be eased from midnight.

There was, however, one new imported Covid-19 infection today, involving a local from Mukah who returned from Yemen.

The person tested negative upon arrival at KLIA using the RTK Antigen test, but positive on the 10th day of his quarantine in Sarawak.

The person is a university student in Yemen and first flew to Cairo, Egypt by Yemenia Airlines on August 1, before taking a connecting flight to Malaysia.

On August 3, he took a direct flight to Sibu where he was immediately whisked into quarantine according to the state’s standard operating procedure (SOP) on arrivals from a foreign country.

The student is now at the Sibu hospital for treatment and contact tracing efforts are underway.

He is the third case of a Sarawakian student returning from Yemen and contracting the coronavirus. – August 14, 2020.