Malaysia Imposes Covid-19 Entry Ban for US, Britain and France

Malaysia on Thursday added nine more countries, including the United States, Britain and France, to be barred from the country. The bans come as Malaysia struggles to contain the growing numbers of COvid-19 cases.

Malaysia’s government on Tuesday said it would from Sept 7 bar entry of pass holders from India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Also in a bid to curtail imported coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy.

The ban will now include all countries that have reported more than 150,000 Covid-19 cases, Reuters reported.

Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Malaysia, which has reported just 9,374 Covid-19 cases and 128 deaths as of Thursday, has banned tourists and business traveller from entering the country since March. When it imposed strict curbs on movement and commerce to contain the spread.

The move to further tighten entry restrictions follows the discovery of new clusters sparked by infections among returnees and undocumented migrants.

The expanded list also includes Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Bangladesh.

“We will add more (countries) that are considered high risk,” Ismail Sabri was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Ismail Sabri had earlier said that the ban would include permanent residents; expatriates; students and those on spouse visas and participants of Malaysia’s My Second Home program.

Thailand records 2 new Covid-19 cases in state quarantine

Meanwhile, Thailand on Thursday reported two more cases of covid-19.  They were quarantined Thai returnees from Indonesia and the United States. The 2 new cases brought the Kingdoms total covid-19 cases to 3,427.

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration said one of the new cases was a male student, 22, who arrived from Indonesia on Aug 20 on the same flight as two previously confirmed cases.

He was quarantined in Chon Buri province and his infection was confirmed by his second test on Tuesday.

The other was a woman, aged 23, arrived from the US on Aug 21. She was quarantined in Bangkok. Her infection was found by her second test on Tuesday. Neither patient showed any symptoms.

So far, infection rates were 16.12% among the 1,847 returnees from Indonesia and 9.80% of the 6,943 people coming from the US, the CCSA said.

Of 3,427 total cases, 3,277 (95%) had recovered and 92 patients were at hospitals. The death toll had stopped at 58 since June 2.

Global Covid-19 cases rose by 286,369 over the past 24 hours to 26.18 million. The death toll was up by 6,316 to 867,347. The US had the most cases at 6.29 million, up by 41,211, and the most deaths at 189,964, up by 1,090.