Updated: Special flight bringing Malaysians home from Wuhan arrives at KLIA

Updated: Special flight bringing Malaysians home from Wuhan arrives at KLIA
SEPANG: Relieved to be home. Both the Malaysians and non-Malaysians who arrived here on a special government-commissioned AirAsia flight from Wuhan will be screened before they are quarantined for two weeks and cleared for possible infections. Photo courtesy of BERNAMA.

SEPANG, Feb 4 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The special flight carrying Malaysian nationals from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), 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 5.57 am.

A total of 107 individuals, comprising Malaysians and their non-Malaysian spouses and children, were brought home in the special flight which departed from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport.

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

The passengers however will not be taken into the KLIA terminal but will be directly transported via buses to the Air Disaster Unit of KLIA for screenings after which they will be taken either to the hospital or their quarantine centres.

SEPANG, Feb 4 — Microbiologist Selvanesan Sengol (centre) on a final briefing with medical officers set to receive passengers on board a special flight from Wuhan at the KLIA. Photo courtesy of BERNAMA

The flight had earlier departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) for Wuhan at 3.50 pm on Monday with 12 crew and eight HADR mission personnel to bring home the Malaysians and their spouses and children.

The aircraft also brought with it 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.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was reported as saying that all passengers on board the flight, on arrival in Malaysia, would have to undergo health screening at the Air Disaster Unit (ADU) at the KLIA.

Those detected with the symptoms will immediately be sent to hospital, while others will be taken by bus to a monitoring centre.

— NNN-BERNAMA    

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