The land VTL, announced on Nov 24, allows up to 1,440 Singapore citizens, permanent residents and long-term pass holders in Malaysia to cross the Causeway into Singapore every day, with the same number allowed to go the other way.
Those travelling under the VTL do not have to undergo quarantine upon arrival and only need to take two Covid-19 tests before entering either Singapore or Malaysia.
“I received a report at the Johor entry point that there was a positive case, through RTK Antigen screening, that was detected during arrival testing.
“This will be checked using confirmatory testing through a RT-PCR test to confirm the results,” Khairy said during a visit to the National Health Institute in Setia Alam today.
He said the Johor Bahru health department was carrying out a risk evaluation of the passengers on the bus who were with the individual.
“They will evaluate if the passengers need to undergo quarantine and other considerations,” he said.
Khairy said although a positive Covid-19 case had been detected, he did not consider it as a factor that could cause the land VTL programme to fail.
“Instead, it serves as an example that pre-departure and on-arrival testing are necessary as preventive steps.
“It doesn’t mean we will cancel VTL because of this one case. We have to live with it. We have to understand there will be positive cases,” he said.
He said what was more important was the country’s diagnostic capability and preparedness as well as risk evaluation done by the district health departments when such cases occurred.
Khairy also said discussions on VTL arrangements were being carried out with other countries such as Indonesia, Brunei and Thailand.
“We will take into consideration this new variant of concern (Omicron),” he said.
On Omicron, he said he had requested the finance ministry for more allocations to increase the capacity for genomic surveillance.
“There is no report of Omicron in Malaysia. Nevertheless, we will increase our genomic surveillance, especially at international entry points, to ensure that if the variant arrives here, we will be able to detect it quickly,” he said.
He said the health ministry, the science, technology and innovation ministry and the higher education ministry were able to sequence 1,500 SARS-CoV2 samples a month.
Commenting on suggestions to have a targeted movement control order (MCO) because of concerns on Omicron, Khairy said it was too early to talk about an MCO.
“Our researchers are looking into it based on all the data from WHO (World Health Organization) and other countries.
“We’re reaching out to our counterparts,” he said.
He said although Malaysia was relaxing its border restrictions with a few countries, the government wanted to ensure that its response was proportionate with the risk.
“We don’t know the full extent of the risk, it’s still too early to tell,” he said.
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