KUCHING, April 20 — Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) today reinstated its earlier decision to order returning Sarawakians to be quarantined for 14 days after three of them were later tested positive for Covid-19, its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said today.

"All Sarawakians who returned from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan will be quarantined at their points of arrivals for 14 days,” he said in his daily media briefing.

He said samples of swaps would be taken from them on the seventh day to determine if they have the virus in their system.

"If they are tested negative, they will be asked to go home to complete the 14-day quarantine period,” he said while those who are tested positive will be treated at the government hospitals.

Uggah said SDMC had on April 17 had decided that these returnees would be asked to stay at home for 14 days instead of at the quarantine centres.

"However, we found out that there were positive cases among the returnees that forced us to come back to our earlier decision that we need to quarantine all Sarawakians who come back from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan for 14 days,” he said.

"We have a case of Sarawakian who has been to Indonesia, who came come through KLIA, and he was later tested positive in Kuching.

"In Miri, we have a case who came back from overseas, and he was also tested positive while the third case involved an individual who came back from Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

"Can you imagine what would happen if these persons were not quarantined? They can cause a lot of havoc,” he said.

Uggah, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, said that with immediate effect all passengers of domestic flights within Sarawak are required to fill e-Health Declaration form which are available from the website http://sdmc.gov.my.

He said the coronavirus situation in Sarawak is under control, with 97 per cent compliance rate among the people relating to a movement control order.

He wanted all Sarawakians to comply with the directives issued by the state government from time to time so contain the spread of the disease.