Preparation to bring home Malaysians from Wuhan in final stage – ambassador

by BERNAMA/ pic by BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Embassy in China is in the final stage of preparations to gather all identified Malaysians in Wuhan to be brought home today, following the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China.

Malaysian Ambassador to China Raja Datuk Nushirwan Zainal Abidin (picture) said the secretariat team, established for the mission, was working to ensure everything particularly logistics coordination at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport would proceed smoothly.

“We have informed them to gather at one place and that they will be taken to the airport by vehicles specially prepared for this,” he said when contacted by Bernama from here today.

Meanwhile, he said the final list of 141 people, comprising 117 Malaysians and 24 non-citizens who are their spouses and children, had been submitted to the Chinese government yesterday.

The ambassador was also thankful that the logistics issue was resolved due to a discussion via phone between Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last Saturday.

“As announced by Deputy Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail) yesterday, the flight to carry home Malaysians in Wuhan arrives today. However, as this is a complicated situation, there will be a delay in the return flight schedule,” he said.

The ambassador said he also had sent a short message to the involved Malaysians, advising them, among others, on procedures to be adhered to during the evacuation process.

Yesterday, Dr Wan Azizah announced the mission to bring back Malaysians in Wuhan via a special flight.