Malaysians working in China postpone going back

BEIJING: Malaysians working in China are not planning to return here so soon due to the coronavirus outbreak despite the long spring festival holidays coming to an end this Saturday.

Many of them are deferring their return trip, given the uncertainty of China’s health crisis with individual provinces and companies extending the holiday for a few more days to a week.

Architect Chang See Chen, 47, said his company had extended the holidays until Feb 5.

“The break could be longer, depending on the health crisis situation in the country.”

Chang said he had also deferred his return trip to Feb 9.

He had initially planned to fly back on Feb 5.

He said due to the health crisis and internal travel restrictions in China, “business trips and official meetings would be cancelled”.

As such, he anticipated he might not have much work as most of his projects involved meetings with government officials who were now tasked to look into the outbreak.Chang said among the items he would be bringing back to China would be face masks as the item was difficult to obtain.

Another Malaysian who is working here is also differing his return trip with his family to Feb 14. They were supposed to fly to China on Feb 5.

“We don’t want to take any chances, ” said the co-founder of an entertainment company who wished to remain anonymous.

“Even if we go back, we will stay indoors.”

Asthy Tan, 40, has also changed her flight plans. Instead of going back on Saturday, she has extended her holidays to Feb 8 or even later.

“This is to avoid the crowds at the airport as most people would be travelling home to China around this time.”

She said although her work would be affected due to her extended leave, her health was more important.

Meanwhile, classes in primary and secondary schools in many cities in China, including Beijing, would remain closed until further notice while universities are scheduled to resume classes in mid-February, after the winter break.