The government has taken various precautionary measures at entry points into the country, especially the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), since the alarming outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), said Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik.

"As there is no cure for the disease, prevention is important. We will work with other ministries and agencies to achieve this, by issuing advisories to tell Malaysians not to travel to certain countries unless they really have to," he said after attending the cabinet meeting this afternoon.

He said among the countries are Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Passengers separated

The minister said the KLIA staff have been trained to be more cautious in their actions should they come across any suspected case of SARS.

The staff o­n board were told to separate passengers suspected of being infected with SARS from others and refer them to hospitals and medical centres immediately, he added.

He said there were eight passengers o­n a flight from Hanoi, Vietnam last week who were spotted with symptoms of SARS and sent to the Putrajaya Hospital after the plane landed.

"They were discharged later when the hospital decided that they were not infected with SARS. There has not been any other incident reported to me.

"We realise that these measures will cause much inconvenience to the passengers but we must do everything possible to make sure that Malaysians are protected," Ling said adding that the public must be educated and given enough information about SARS so that they can take the necessary precaution.

The minister also said since the outbreak, there has been about 600 cancellations of flight booking every day, resulting in a drop in the flights from and to KLIA by three percent.

In a related matter, the World Health Organistion today warned travellers against going to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guandong as a majority of people infected with SARS to date had caught the disease in both Hong Kong and China.