COMMENT | Context matters in quarantining fully-vaxxed travelers

COLUMN | WTF! Wow, that's funny. No, not of the ‘ha-ha’ type, but ‘alamak’ when I read the Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s latest quarantine rule for inbound travellers.

For some time now, I have hoped to visit KL. The bane of a prepaid hotel quarantine package, travel pass and multiple documentations pushed my plan to the backburner.

I am immunised with Astra, boostered with Pfizer with no history of Covid-related health issues.

But, according to Khairy, I still pose a higher risk of passing on Covid than those who are fully immunised and have recovered from an infection two months prior.

Therefore, I must quarantine for seven days after arrival at KLIA.

If that’s not counter-intuitive, it is certainly confounding.

Khairy’s riddling ruling is reportedly based on “scientific data and evidence as well as the experience of other countries”.

So, let’s look at a sample of how other countries have managed their quarantine requirements...