SEPANG, Feb 26 — The special flight carrying Malaysian nationals from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, arrived safely at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) early today.
The AirAsia flight chartered specifically for the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission initiated by the Malaysian government landed at 6.50 am. The aircraft left for Wuhan from KLIA2 at 5.58 pm yesterday.
A total of 66 individuals, including children, were brought home in the special flight which departed from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 1.45 am today.
The aircraft also carried 12 crew members, nine Malaysian government representatives and two officers from the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, making it 89 people on board.
All those brought home would have to undergo health screening at the Air Disaster Unit (ADU) at KLIA, just as how it was done in the first HADR mission on Feb 4.
Those detected with the symptoms will be sent to the Tuanku Jaafar hospital in Seremban, while others will be taken to the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) in Nilai, which serves as a monitoring centre, and placed under quarantine for 14 days.
In the first humanitarian aid mission carried out by the Malaysian government on Feb 4, a total of 107 Malaysians stranded in Hubei province were flown home.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, in a statement said 75 passengers were originally listed to be on the flight home, but nine of them could not make it due to various factors.
“Six who were already at the (Wuhan) airport could not board due to health reasons.
“One passenger withdrew, also from health reasons, without being present at the airport, another could not make the trip because of work commitments while one more individual could not leave Wuhan due to logistical issues,” the statement read.
— BERNAMA
