Health minister: Registration of students from Wuhan suspended temporarily

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 — The Education Ministry (MoE) is temporarily suspending the registration of students from the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province at all Malaysian education institutions due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said students from other areas in China are allowed to register to study with close monitoring by the education institutions involved.

Dzulkefly said, “The Health Ministry (MoH) and MoE are suspending student entry from Wuhan in Hubei to all higher learning centres and we will inform you when this comes to an end.

“All educators, administrators, citizens and non-citizens who have a history of visiting or staying in Wuhan in Hubei will also be placed under isolation and observation at their respective homes for 14 days from the time they departed,” said Dzulkefly.

The MoH reported that as of today, there have been no new cases of 2019-nCoV infections in Malaysia. The number of those categorised as Patient-Under Investigation (PUI) stands at 127, of which 68 are Malaysians, 56 are Chinese nationals and one each from Jordan, Brazil and Thailand.

Of these numbers, three were infected from the PUI group while the remaining five contracted the virus due to close contact with those already infected.

Apart from that, there are a total of 107 cases that came back negative while 17 are still awaiting their results.

Dzulkefly also said there are no discussions to halt trade with China for now and that the Chinese government has not asked Malaysia to make arrangements for the return of their infected citizens.

He said Malaysia’s focus is on trying to get all citizens currently in Wuhan back home.

“There are no plans for sanctions. Trade and travel will continue. We are also in the process of getting our own people back from Wuhan,” said Dzulkelfy, before adding that he isn’t aware of the news that China is sending planes to Malaysia and Thailand to repatriate those who are infected.

“In fact, we are doing more than what’s recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to keep the virus from spreading.

“We are on top of this,” added Dzulkefly.

WHO declared the 2019 novel coronavirus a “global health emergency” today after human-to-human transmissions were reported outside China.

Since 2000, WHO has only applied the emergency designation five times including for the 2009 H1N1 swine flu, the 2014 polio and the 2016 Zika virus.

The last time WHO declared a global health emergency was in 2019 for the Ebola outbreak in Eastern Congo that killed more than 2,000 people.