KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — Varsity students were only given ordinary health screenings, and not Covid-19 tests, since all of them had undergone a four-week mandatory quarantine, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah clarified today.
Responding to a question on whether varsity students were screened before being allowed to return to their respective hometowns, Dr Noor Hisham explained that the students were not made to undergo such tests unless they were symptomatic.
“There may be a big possibility that some of these students, even though they were under quarantine, were exposed to staff in their campuses when they were moving about.
“So we are controlling the remaining students in the campuses and isolating them while at the same time performing contact tracing,” he said during his daily Covid-19 briefing here.
This comes after two students from Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI) in Perak were diagnosed with Covid-19 after returning to Sabah.
Dr Noor Hisham also disclosed that apart from the two infected UPSI students, a new cluster has emerged among three students from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), bringing the total number of such cases to five at present.
For the trio, he said it was believed that the students may have been exposed to the virus at the campus cafe, but added that investigations were ongoing to determine the source of infection.
He, however, assured that the ministry will screen all who have been exposed to the infected individuals and quarantine them.
Earlier today, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said students from UPSI were not allowed to return to their hometowns as they need to be tested for Covid-19 after two of its students contracted the virus.
Ismail Sabri said the students will be held at the university temporarily until the tests are completed.
The duo had returned to Sabah earlier this month after the government allowed tertiary students to travel home.
