Type A are import cases involving foreigners while Type B are cases coming from outside Labuan but from within Malaysia.

Labuan health director Dr Ismuni Bohari said the two cases involved the crew of a ship whose last port of call was at a country where the Covid-19 variants of Mu and Lambda had been detected.

“We fear that one of the cases can trigger high infections. We have no choice but to send the samples for analysis in the peninsula,” he told Bernama today.

Ismuni said the two cases were detected when a private healthcare team conducted Covid-19 screening on board the ship on Sept 6.

He said that following the detection of the two cases, all the ship’s 28 crew members were asked to undergo quarantine onboard.

“The cases were detected as mandatory rapid RT-PCR tests were enforced on ship crews entering Labuan. These were the first import Type A cases detected after the Delta variant reached Labuan and led to a sudden surge in cases and daily deaths,” he said.

Ismuni also disclosed that five new import cases involving foreign ship crews were detected yesterday, and that some of them would be sent for analysis.

Labuan completed 100% immunisation against Covid-19 among its adult population on Tuesday.

This federal territory has entered Phase 4 of the national recovery plan, having recorded single-digit cases daily and no new deaths for the last 35 days. The death toll in Labuan due to the pandemic remained at 149 as of today.