Precautions in place as Malaysians evacuated from Wuhan

by BERNAMA/ pic by BERNAMA

SEPANG – Malaysian authorities took all the precautionary measures when receiving Malaysians evacuated from coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China at the KL International Airport (KLIA) along with their spouses and children, some of whom are non-Malaysians.

They had arrived home at 5.57 am on board a special AirAsia flight in a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission mounted by the Malaysian government.

The 133 passengers and crew were met, among others, by a Hazardous Material (Hazmat) team and Health Ministry personnel on the tarmac before being taken a short distance by bus to the Air Disaster Unit (ADU) at KLIA where the decontamination process and health screening took place.

Mindful of the danger posed by the virus that has reportedly killed more than 360 people, mostly in China, the government laid out stringent procedures for the group arriving from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to ensure the elimination of any risk of infecting others.

The plane skipped the normal parking bay at KLIA, coming to a halt instead at a designated area not far from the ADU while those who disembarked from the aircraft did not enter the KLIA building, reducing the risk of contact with other people.

The transfer of passengers and crew from the plane to the ADU took about two hours, with only one bus belonging to the Fire and Rescue Department deployed for this in another move taken to check any spread of the virus.

Even the bus driver was seen wearing protective gear as he undertook the duty of ferrying the face mask-wearing passengers to ADU.

Following the health screening procedure, two Fire and Rescue Department buses left the ADU with police escort at about 9 am for a monitoring facility called the Home Surveillance Centre where those who were brought there will undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Two other buses were also seen leaving the ADU for the monitoring facility later.