BY James Kon

Incoming passengers, including returning citizens and residents are allowed to take the required three days of COVID screening using the antigen rapid test (ART) kit at home or at the hotel, which was previously required to be carried out on arrival at the Brunei International Airport.

Legal action will be taken against those failing to do the test under the provisions of Section 62 (A), Chapter 204 of the Infectious Diseases Act.

The latest measure to ease congestion at the airport was shared by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar at the daily press conference on Tuesday.

“The Ministry of Health has reviewed the handling of ART for all passengers.

“As such, starting this afternoon, ART on arrival will be done by the passengers themselves when they arrive at their homes or hotels.

“Each passenger will be given three ART kits to be used on the day of arrival, Day 2 and Day 3 and the results must be uploaded to the BruHealth app,” the minister said.

Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham added, “The BruHealth colour code for each passenger arriving in the country will automatically change to red. However, passengers who upload negative ART test results will be given a day pass through the BruHealth app which allows them to enter any premises in the country.”

The directive is in accordance with the provisions under Section 62(A), Chapter 204 of the Infectious Diseases Act whereby failure to comply may result in legal action.

With the announcement, the minister urged the public to comply with the latest steps to ease airport congestion and to follow the established standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“The increasing number of travellers entering the country means the number could go up to thousands at any given time which may lead to two to three hours of delay.

“Before the passengers board the flight to Brunei Darussalam, they are already required to test for COVID-19 using ART or PCR, hence the decision to allow them to take the test at home or hotel.

“If a passenger does not carry out the test and upload the result onto the BruHealth app, their code will turn red, preventing them from entering any premises,” he added.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin