The National Recovery Council's (NRC) recommendation for international borders to be fully reopened without mandatory quarantine from March 1 might be welcome news for business travellers and the tourism industry.
However, the rising number of Covid-19 cases on the back of the Omicron wave has raised concern among health experts.
Over one week of Chinese New Year, Covid-19 cases rose from 5,720 on Feb 3 to 20,939 on Feb 11, a 266 per cent increase.
Up to Monday, the country's infectivity rate stood at 1.43. Ironically, Labuan, the first to be declared Covid-19 free, has the highest Rt level of 1.90.
The figure indicates that a person who has contracted Covid-19 will transmit the virus to an average of 1.43 people in the country.
As the Omicron variant is three to four times more transmissible than Delta, Malaysia can expect to record more cases in the days to come.
Instead of reaching 22,000 daily cases by the end of March, the nation logged 22,802 cases on Feb 12.
On Wednesday, cases reached an all-time high of 27,381.
The rising number of cases also resulted in panic buying. More people began buying Covid-19 Rapid Test Kit-Antigen (RTK-Antigen) self-test kits in bulk, as was reported by news portals.
Here comes a dilemma for Malaysians. As they anticipate having a better year, they have to allocate more money to buy self-test kits.
And since there will no longer be lockdowns and interstate travel bans, they have to self-regulate.
With Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin's recommendation for employers to implement a work from home policy or rotational system, more companies are expected to follow suit to minimise the risk of infection.
Hard-hit sectors — such as the small- and medium-sized enterprise, and hospitality and tourism sectors — continue to be overshadowed by a slow recovery and uncertainty.
But with the Omicron surge, it is important that international borders are reopened only when the situation is under control or become endemic.
And with the impending Johor state election, it is advisable for the administration to reopen borders gradually.
This will ensure that the virus transmission is kept under control, given the possibility of additional clusters occurring during campaigning.
Among the recommendations by EMIR Research are:
THE Immigration Department, as a frontliner, needs to conduct risk assessments and update the list of high-risk countries at least twice a week due to the Omicron wave;
THE government could re-negotiate with the Singaporean government to arrange for more bus and flight frequencies under the land and air vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) into Malaysia.
This could be a testing ground for Malaysia before opening its borders to Asean and Asian countries; and,
THE mandatory quarantine period is based on the categories of vaccination status. Those who are fully vaccinated (with boosters) will undergo a five-day quarantine and will need to take a RT-PCR swab test on the fifth day of the quarantine.
Vaccinated people (without boosters) will undergo a seven-day quarantine and will need to take a RT-PCR swab test on the fifth day of the quarantine.
Those who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated will undergo a 10-day quarantine and will need to take a RT-PCR swab test on the eighth day of the quarantine.
It is also recommended that the government impose a longer quarantine period on Malaysians and non-Malaysians coming from high-risk countries.
At the same time, it is advisable to do genome sequencing as part of our defence against variants and (again) part of (updating) our risk assessments and "horizon scanning and monitoring".
In short, the government has to ensure that the Omicron situation is under control before reopening borders.
Malaysians need to do their part by wearing face masks, maintaining physical distancing and sanitising regularly.
Collective action from the government and citizens will minimise the exhaustion of national health resources and economic damage.
The writer is research analyst at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
