Call for standardised measures in Asia
By Rosli Abidin Yahya

Parents and guardians of school-going children had been advised to change their holiday plans during breaks of school terms as a result of the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Such memorandums had been issued to the parents and guardians to emphasise on a similar directive issued to schools by the Ministry of Education (MoE) on a similar subject.

A memorandum issued by a school said there will be a ban on travel to countries as listed in the MoE directive.

The banned countries include Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Canada and Malaysia including Miri, Kuala Lurah, Labuan, Limbang and Sabah.

Brunei Darussalam has been in full preparation to cater for any possible outbreak of SARS despite the fact that the nation is still free of the overwhelming effect on the spread of the virus.

Officials from 12 Asian countries including Brunei Darussalam met at the Clark Special Economic Zone in the northern Philippines last Thursday to agree on tough new regulations for screening air passengers as the region battles the SARS outbreak.

Aviation, health, quarantine and immigration officials from the 12 nations met to draw up a protocol for testing air passengers as part of efforts to contain the disease, the first major epidemic to be spread around the world by jet travel, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

The standardisation is to be formulated as many governments were reported to have adopted excessive measures against SARS.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin