Singapore, KL agree to continue screenings at land borders, share surveillance data
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A photo taken on Feb 17, 2020, showing Malaysia's Health Department personnel conducting thermal scanning of travellers entering Johor Baru from Woodlands Checkpoint.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Singapore and Malaysia have agreed on areas of joint cooperation in the two countries' efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
The Singapore-Malaysia joint working group, the setting up of which was announced on Feb 11, met for the first time in Johor Baru on Tuesday, with senior government officials of both countries in attendance.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said both countries agreed at the first meeting that they will continue with entry screenings and further align health screening protocols at the land borders.
Further, the two countries will exchange information on how best to manage and treat patients, as well as share surveillance data for better monitoring and pre-empting of the spread of Covid-19, the official name given to the disease by the World Health Organisation.
The delegations also agreed to exchange information such as national advisories and public messaging on the virus.
Prior to the meeting, both countries had said that collaboration was important, given the high volume of travel between Singapore and Malaysia.
The MOH also noted that before the Tuesday meeting, the two countries had already been in close touch with each other "since the start of the outbreak".
The first case of the virus was publicly announced in Wuhan, in China's Hubei province, last December, and has since spread to many countries.
Malaysia has reported 22 confirmed cases of the virus, among whom 20 have recovered and been discharged.
Singapore so far has 96 cases, of which 66 have fully recovered and been discharged, the MOH said in an update yesterday.
Singapore's delegation on Tuesday was led by Dr Benjamin Koh, the MOH's deputy secretary of development, while Malaysia's was headed by Datuk Chong Chee Kheong, who is the Malaysian Health Ministry's deputy director-general of public health.
Delegates at the meeting toured the health screening facilities at the Sultan Iskandar Building's Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex in Johor Baru.
The joint working group is expected to meet again next month.
