Guide
Living in Kuching: what Sarawak asks of you
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The Japanese encephalitis point, stated properly
JE is the one health item where Sarawak is genuinely an outlier rather than a variation.
NaTHNaC states that JE "occurs throughout Malaysia, with year-round risk", and that "the highest-risk area in Malaysia is considered to be Sarawak, with a seasonal peak in cases between October and December".
Two things follow. Risk rises with rural exposure and length of stay — which describes living there rather than visiting, so the calculation for a resident is not the calculation for a tourist. And the seasonal peak coincides with the wetter months, when mosquito activity is higher anyway.
Vaccination is considered rather than automatic. For someone actually resident in Sarawak it is a conversation worth having properly rather than waving off.
The rest of the picture
Beyond JE, Sarawak sits inside the Borneo profile:
- Malaria — low risk in the inland forested areas, very low on the coast where Kuching sits. Bite avoidance, not tablets.
- Hepatitis B — intermediate or high prevalence, as across Malaysia.
- Rabies — a risk in Borneo, and Sarawak has had documented outbreaks. Animal bites are treated urgently rather than watched.
- Hepatitis A — recommended for anyone previously unvaccinated.
None of that is unusual for the region. It is simply a different list from the one a peninsular checklist would give you, which is the point of NaTHNaC keeping Borneo separate.
60-second check
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Check my policyDistance, and what it means for a policy
Kuching has hospitals and is a proper city. Sarawak is very large, and much of it is not.
For anyone living inland, working upriver, or travelling into the national parks, the realistic sequence for anything serious is local stabilisation and then transfer — to Kuching, and for complex cases beyond Borneo altogether.
That makes two clauses matter more than the headline limit: whether evacuation cover includes domestic transfer within Malaysia, not only international evacuation, and whether the insurer settles directly with the hospital you would actually reach. Neither is safe to assume.
What we can and cannot help with
To be clear about scope: we do not recommend individual hospitals, and nothing here is medical advice. We are an insurance introducer for international health and life cover for people.
What we can do is the cover behind the move — and in East Malaysia the evacuation clause deserves more attention than it usually gets. Pre-existing conditions are excluded and cover is governed by the Regency Assurance policy wording.
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The month-by-month timeline so the insurance certificate is ready before your appointment, not after.