PUTRAJAYA: There is not much difference between a 10-day quarantine and the previous 14-day mandatory one, said the health ministry.
Its director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said Covid-19 symptoms can be detected within the first week of quarantine, and the move to have 10-day quarantines is backed by research which show that the results are “almost the same”.
“The data shows there is not much difference between the two time periods but we find that at least 10 days of quarantine is needed,” he told a press conference here today.
However, he said a seven-day quarantine was too risky. “We will stick to 10 days,” he added.
Since Dec 14, Putrajaya shortened the mandatory quarantine from 14 days which was implemented in March to 10 days.
Dr Noor Hisham said Britain, Germany and Belgium have shortened the quarantine period to 10 days, while in France, the quarantine period lasts only seven days.
On another matter, he said companies manufacturing vaccines would be given conditional authorisation for emergency use of unapproved vaccines or medicines.
“But we use a conditional registration, which means we give (them) a period of one-year for registration with a rolling submission,” he said.
The rolling submission, he said includes sharing latest trial results, to allow the ministry to review the latest data.
Dr Noor Hisham further said the same method was used for Hepatitis C vaccination where the ministry receives latest data to monitor any side effects of the treatment for one year.
On monitoring of any side effects of Covid-19 vaccines, Noor Hisham added the ministry would monitor it for one year.
“Our priority will be to reduce the process of any side effects of the vaccines” he said.
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