Malaysia banned visitors from the Chinese city of Wuhan and its surrounding Hubei province on Monday, in a bid to contain the spread of a deadly virus.

A statement by the prime minister’s office said the authorities will temporarily halt all issuance of visas for Chinese citizens from the area with immediate effect.

“The government has decided to suspend temporarily all immigration facilities … to all China nationals from Wuhan city and the surrounding Hubei province,” it said.

Malaysia has reported four confirmed cases of the flu-like virus which started in the central-Chinese city and has spread worldwide.

All four, including two children, are in stable condition. They are tourists from Wuhan who entered Malaysia for a holiday via neighbouring Singapore.

The virus, similar to the SARS pathogen, has claimed at least 81 lives — all of them in China.

Malaysia welcomed 2.94 million visitors from China last year and is aiming to raise this to 3.48 million this year.

The prime minister’s office said the ban will be lifted when the situation returns to normal.

Meanwhile, a campaign by Malaysians on petition website change.org urging the government to bar Chinese nationals from entering the country has gathered more than 383,000 signatures of the 500,000 target as of Monday evening.

“The government should think more of the health of Malaysians,” the petition said.

“Don’t wait until there is death among Malaysian people then only the government wants to take some preventive action.”

– AFP

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

SDP’s ‘Don’t anyhow say things’ video goes viral, raise questions about promises made by PM Lee during GE2015

Leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Dr Chee Soon Juan posted…

考量体弱者应对医疗开销 读者吁屋契回购计划应更弹性化

建屋发展局处长(分局运作)林丽丽,于本月17日在《海峡时报》回应一读者观点,重申符合屋契回购计划(LBS)的年龄为65岁,不过该局将检讨让年龄标准更为弹性化,特别是让那些面对健康和财务问题的群体能受惠。 事缘一名读者撰写评论,提出屋契回购计划应该对乐龄群体更为亲善些。 名为郑春斐(译音)的民众,提出老一辈许多夫妇,丈夫多年长于妻子,假设丈夫已65岁,但是妻子才53岁,夫妇俩都不能参与屋契回购计划。 “直到妻子也迈入65岁,两人才符合资格,这时丈夫都已经77岁了。”只要丈夫与妻子间年龄差距越大,其中一人能透过屋契回购,享有退休福利的时间就越短。 体弱年长者面对医疗和生活双负担 为此,他建议有关计划的合格条件应更弹性些,特别是有者也因为健康原因提早退休,是否也能够让他们善用计划来保障退休后的收入?特别是他们还要面对医疗和生活开销的双负担? 同时,郑春斐也质疑,为何透过售卖屋契的所得,非得注入公积金退休户口不可? 这让年长者的财务管理选择不多,一些年长者公积金户口本本就没有多少储蓄、且急需现钱用在医疗和退休生活开销。 “屋契回购计划的设定,应让年长者获得更实质的帮助,让他们拥有可支配收入。” 该读者也提出,建屋局并没有阐明,在出售部分屋契后,屋主是否还能出租整间房子,如此屋主可以和子女一起居住,又能从房租中获取额外收入。 对此,林丽丽强调,屋契回购计划让年长者,可回售组屋部分屋契给政府,藉此为退休生活换取稳定、持续的收入。 回售组屋的所得,…

ST readers refute survey results that says salary is not the biggest driver for job satisfaction for Singapore workers

According to a study done by data collection platform Qualtrics, it is…