Two among 107 Malaysians from Wuhan fail screening, taken to hospital

CORONAVIRUS | Two out of 107 individuals who arrived in Malaysia on a special flight from Wuhan, China, this morning, had failed their health screenings here and immediately sent to the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said all 107 Malaysians who were living in Wuhan - the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak - had passed an initial screening in China before boarding the AirAsia flight chartered specifically for the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) effort.

"Although it was previously informed that there were 141 individuals who had registered with the Malaysian Embassy in China to return home, the actual number who boarded the flight was 107 people," Wan Azizah said in a statement released by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).

"According to Wisma Putra, a number of Malaysians scheduled to board the flight could not leave Wuhan due to logistical issues.

"The main reason was that they were located outside of Wuhan and faced difficulties to get transport to the city or airport," she said.

For the 105 Malaysians who passed the health screening, Wan Azizah said they were bussed to a surveillance centre at the Akademi Kepimpinan Pendidikan Tinggi (AKEPT) in Bandar Enstek, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, where they will be subjected to screenings twice a day and kept in quarantine until declared fit to leave.

"Aside from medical officers, no communications will be allowed with outside parties including family members.

"Therefore, we urge for understanding from their family members and friends, to give full cooperation to this observation process," she said, adding that the site has also been placed under police watch.

Also on board were 12 crew members, eight HADR mission personnel and six officers from the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing.

The flight departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) for Wuhan at 3.50pm on Monday carrying along 500,000 pairs of rubber gloves as a contribution to the Chinese government in an effort to contain the 2019-nCoV outbreak in the country.

-Mkini