ALOR STAR – Ahead of the reopening of international borders on April 1, Kedah, which shares a border with southern Thailand, is concerned about the risk of travellers from Thailand spreading the Covid-19 virus locally and vice versa.
State Health and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Dr Mohd Hayati Othman told the state assembly today that the opening of the checkpoints at Bukit Kayu Hitam and Wang Kelian (in neighbouring Perlis) is bound to see a stream of travellers.
Other border checkpoints in the state will not be reopened on April 1, but will start operating on a staggered basis later.
He said the state is keenly awaiting the outcome of deliberations between the National Security Council (NSC) and the state health department on the best standard operating procedures (SOPs) to be implemented on those crossing the border.
“Right now, we are waiting for a solution to be released by talks between NSC and the department, and we hope that good SOPs will come out of it.
“As for our state, we will have a company that will handle the RT-PCR Covid-19 tests for all outgoing travellers.
“Those coming into Malaysia will have to test negative on their RT-PCR test before they can enter,” he said.
Last month, Thai Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha met with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in Bangkok. He shared his hopes for people to travel between Thailand and Malaysia without quarantine soon, while following public health measures of both sides.
Meanwhile, to manage the move towards the endemic phase, Hayati is looking to encourage Kedahans to complete their vaccinations.
He said that many Muslims are still wary of the vaccine because of news of deaths that have gone viral over social media, stressing that these include fake news.
The rate for booster shots is lowest among Malays. It also translates to very high death rates.
Therefore, he is engaging Muslim leaders, muftis and those of authority in Islamic groups to educate anti-vaxxers on the need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
“It is too bad that we don’t have a law to force the public to be vaccinated, and this has impacted the society,” he said today.
Up to March 15, there have been 2,956 deaths, which make up 1.7% of the total Covid-19 cases, Hayati said.
Kedah currently has the second-highest death rate due to Covid-19 in the past two weeks, at 58 deaths per million people.
Only 72.1% have completed two doses of vaccines and 32.4% have received their boosters. – The Vibes, March 23, 2022
