Temperature Screening No Longer Mandatory From Friday

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COVID-19 | Premise owners will no longer be required to conduct temperature screening from Friday onwards after the Health Ministry found the measure to be ineffective in curbing the spread of Covid-19.
In addition, they are no longer required to prepare a logbook for visitors to “check-in”.
“With the abolition (of these SOPs), premise owners are no longer required to prepare temperature scanners and check-in record books at their entrances. However, checking in with MySejahtera is still mandatory as usual.
“Nevertheless, for premise owners who wish to continue conducting temperature checks and maintain check-in record books, the government highly welcomes and encourages them to do so,” said Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in a statement today.
The statement was made following the 12th Covid-19 ministerial quartet meeting where Hishammuddin is chairperson, after considering feedback from the Health Ministry.
On Jan 20, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the ministry has proposed doing away with the logbooks and temperature checks.
He said the fevers are found to have no correlation with whether a person has Covid-19 or not, and people who feel unwell should simply refrain from going out.
As for the logbooks, they were not found to be useful for contact tracing.
“We will suggest to the National Security Council to do away with the books because I can tell you that we don’t use the books for contact tracing.
“I’m sure they (contact tracers) have used it (the books) but not extensively,” he told a press conference at the time.
Meanwhile, Hishammuddin said planning for Malaysia’s transition to the endemic phase has been completed now that all seven components of the plan are in place.
“However, when the phase will be implemented depends on the decision of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Pandemic Management chaired by the prime minister and involving opposition members as well as health experts,” he said.
The seven components are:
Compliance with one general SOP and nine guidelines
A heightened alert system
A national testing strategy
Systems for test, report, isolate, inform, seek (TRISS)
Automated systems for find, test, trace, isolate, support (FTTIS)
The reopening of national borders in phases
Ambassadors for community empowerment
“The ‘transition to endemic’ phase is a comprehensive approach towards living with Covid-19. There are seven pillars in this approach, and in the quartet’s view, the seven pillars are ready,” Hishammuddin said. - Mkini

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