Travellers to Malaysia who are fully vaccinated and have recently recovered from COVID-19 do not need to undergo mandatory quarantine from Thursday, 13 January 2022, as announced by Malaysia Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin on Wednesday, 12 January 2022. This was reported by The Star on Wednesday, 12 January 2022.
Fully vaccinated and recently COVID-19 infected travellers will need to present evidence that they had been fully vaccinated as well as printed or digital laboratory reports to prove they had been infected 11 to 60 days before arriving in Malaysia.
Fully vaccinated and recently COVID-19 infected travellers who had been hospitalised for Covid-19 would also have to show a “fit to travel” letter from the health facility where they were treated.
Fully vaccinated and recently COVID-19 infected travellers who were treated for Covid-19 at home or at isolation centres will have to undergo an RTK-Antigen test 2 days before flying to Malaysia and test negative.
Travellers must also download the MySejahtera application and fill up a health declaration form, undergo health screenings and another RTK-Antigen test upon arrival at any international entry point.
Those who had yet to be fully vaccinated would be required to undergo mandatory quarantine for 7 days at a designated quarantine centre. The current quarantine rules will continue to apply to vaccinated travellers who have not been infected with the virus.
Khairy Jamaluddin said that this new ruling was based on scientific evidence and the latest developments in other countries in their management of travellers who have been infected.
In summary:
- Fully Vaccinated and Recently Recovered from COVID-19: No Quarantine
- Fully Vaccinated but have not been infected with COVID-19 before: Quarantine or VTL
- Not Fully Vaccinated but Recently Recovered from COVID-19: Quarantine
- Not Fully Vaccinated and have not been infected with COVID-19 before: Quarantine
Infographic from Ministry of Health Malaysia (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia)
This new announcement by Khairy Jamaluddin is a game changer for the current VTL situation. This new free-for-all-vaccinated-and-recovered travellers will hopefully ease demand for VTL tickets with the new 50% reduction in quota.
Which is kind of strange that the VTL quota is reduced at a similar time when a free-for-all-vaccinated-and-recovered lane is introduced.
Strange Situation
On a very strange end of the stick, I think that this would also unfortunately and ironically encourage travellers to be infected with COVID-19 for those desperate to return to Malaysia, as being infected with COVID-19 is now a big bonus as travellers need not rely on expensive and/or hard to get Malaysia VTL bus or plane tickets to return to Malaysia, but are quarantine-free by default.
By getting infected with COVID-19, it would save fully vaccinated and recently COVID-19 infected travellers time on booking VTL tickets, and money as PCR tests for travel via air need not be done any more. Travel plans can also be more flexible as fully vaccinated and recently COVID-19 infected travellers can opt for any mode of transport to enter Malaysia as they do not need to undergo mandatory quarantine.
I am not so sure I will be deliberately trying to catch covid 60 days before a scheduled departure.
Too old to dice with possible death or long covid…lol
Looks like it’s back to the waiting game for our next Malaysian holiday.
Have to add that Malaysia has decided to let in ( quarantine free ) people who in the main have acted stupidly and contracted Covid. Those who have proven themselves to have remained careful and disease free are being penalised by having draconian restrictions placed on them. Another prime example of government being led by a ring in the nose called ‘expert’ opinion.