I had to do the full 14 nights and the only people I saw were medical staff
Malini Barnes, 49, a consultant gynaecologist from Glasgow, had to fly to Malaysia in April to visit her father who had been ill.
After arriving there, she was required to quarantine in a hotel for 14 nights.
Malini, a mother of three, said on arrival in Kuala Lumpur: “We were escorted by police to the arrivals hall which was set up as a kind of medical station. You filled in your forms, got a swab test, then you went to a holding area, if you got a negative swab you were allowed to go to immigration and officially enter the country, if you got a positive swab you then got taken off to the isolation ward in one of the hospitals. You could not even arrive into the country officially until you had your negative swab.
She then caught a connecting flight to her home town of Kota Kinabalu, where she went through similar arrivals checks before being escorted – this time by fire department staff – to a hotel.
“There was a police officer at the entrance to the hotel and before we even went in a guy in PPE came out and sprayed your luggage and sprayed you with disinfectant. You had to do a full 14 nights in the hotel. You had to stay in your room, they would literally come round with food, leave it outside your room and ring the doorbell.
“The only people I saw was when they sent medical teams round all the hotels, they came in full PPE and they did repeat Covid swabs on day seven, day nine and day 13. They’d go door to door, you’d open your door but stay in your room.
“It was a bit boring but I was really well prepared. I had a stack of books. I spoke to my family every day but I was desperate to get out towards the end. There’s only so much you can do in a small space.”