Covid-19: Malaysia issues blanket ban on citizens, arrivals from Italy, Iran, South Korea
CORONAVIRUS | The Perikatan Nasional cabinet has decided to impose a travel ban on all citizens and arrivals from Italy, Iran and South Korea.
Both citizens and foreigners hailing from these three countries are barred from entering and transiting in Malaysia...
Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to include the government's decision to bar all Italian, Iranian and South Korean nationals from entering the country. The mistake is regretted.
CORONAVIRUS | The Perikatan Nasional cabinet has decided to impose a travel ban on all citizens and arrivals from Italy, Iran and South Korea.
This means nationals from these three nations have been barred, regardless of their travel history.
Foreigners travelling from these three countries are also barred from entering and transiting in Malaysia.
Quoting newly minted Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, the Health Ministry announced the directive on its official Twitter account.
Meanwhile, Malaysians, Malaysian permanent residents and long-term pass holders arriving from the three countries will not be banned.
They will instead be issued a 14-day order to undergo supervision and observation from home.
Malaysia previously banned travellers from certain provinces of these countries - Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna in Italy; Tehran, Qom and Gilan in Iran; as well as Daegu city and Cheongdo district in South Korea.
These three nations are the hardest hit by Covid-19 after China, where the virus was first discovered.
Italy has the second-highest number of cases in the world with 10,149 testing positive for Covid-19 and 631 deaths.
Iran ranks third-worst affected with 8,042 cases and 291 deaths, while South Korea ranks fourth with 7,775 cases and 60 deaths from the virus.
The ministry also tweeted that existing travel restrictions on arrivals from Hubei, Zhejiang and Jiangsu in China as well as Hokkaido, Japan, remain.
Meanwhile, the Sarawak government also announced a ban on arrivals who have been to any of the three countries, as well as China, in the past 14 days.
Bernama reported State Disaster Management Committee chairperson Amar Douglas Uggah Embas saying that travellers, irrespective of nationalities, will be refused entry effective immediately.
“All Sarawakians and Sarawakian PRs (Permanent Residents), work and student pass holders who have been to mainland China, South Korea, Italy and Iran in the last 14 days must undergo compulsory home quarantine for 14 days. They will be subjected to random monitoring by the medical authority,” he said in a statement.
At present, Malaysia has 129 cases of the highly infectious virus, 25 of which have recovered and been discharged. Out of the 129, 107 patients are from the second wave of recorded cases.
Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.
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