COVID-19 | There have been no Covid-19 cases detected through the Malaysia-Singapore Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) process since its implementation on Aug 17, according to the Health Ministry.

"There was no issue through the RGL. No notification (received) through RGL," said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who is health director-general, today.

Malaysia and Singapore reached an agreement in July to implement the RGL and Periodic Commuting Arrangement (PCA) with a targeted implementation to address the needs of different groups of cross-border travellers between the two countries.

The RGL enables cross-border travel between both countries for essential business and official purposes. 

However, Noor Hisham confirmed that a Malaysian who travelled between the countries had been tested positive for Covid-19 and was undergoing quarantine in Singapore.

According to him, the Health Ministry received a notification from Singapore that the 53-year-old, who holds a permanent resident status in the republic, had been tested positive on Aug 29 after returning to Singapore on Aug 17.

During today's press conference in Putrajaya, Noor Hisham also reiterated the ministry's concern over a possible increase in the number of Covid-19 positive cases due to the onset of winter in other parts of the world.

He said that countries in the Americas, Europe and Southeast Asia are seeing an increase in cases and this has increased concern as countries in the northern hemisphere will be facing winter soon.

"More worrying is that respiratory tract infections, including lung infections, are more frequently reported during winter compared to other seasons. And this situation is a concern because many of the Covid-19 cases reported in Malaysia lately are imported cases who got infected overseas," Noor Hisham explained.

'Infectivity rate has gone up'

According to the top official, they have also found that the infection rate of Covid-19 in the country has increased to Rt1.0

"Rt" is the measurement of how fast coronavirus is spreading. According to a website that does live monitoring of Covid-19's infection rate in the United States, Rt is the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person.

"If Rt is above 1.0, the virus will spread quickly. When Rt is below 1.0, the virus will stop spreading," said the website.

Noor Hisham told reporters that the Rt value for Malaysia was at 0.74 on Aug 26.

"However, today it has gone up to 1.0," he said.

He said that this was why the country had to continue to enhance its border control so as to prevent Covid-19 from entering the country.

Noor Hisham said towards this, the Health Ministry welcomed the announcement by Senior Minister Sabri Yaakob earlier today that the government has decided to bar long-term pass holders from the Philippines, India and Indonesia from entering Malaysia starting this Sept 7.

The restriction includes those with permanent resident status (PR), the Malaysia My Second Home Programme (MM2H) pass, expatriates including professional visit pass holders (PVP) and resident pass holders.

Asked on the need to bar the pass holders, Noor Hisham said that Malaysia had to take proactive measures in facing the pandemic.

He gave the example of Korea which recorded 2,600 cases in 10 days and India, which recorded over 76,000 cases in just 24 hours.

"So, with the concern we have now, where cases continue to increase in the countries I have mentioned earlier, what is important now is for us to take precautions," he said.