Seven provinces in Italy, Japan, and Iran added to Malaysia's Covid-19 travel ban list

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has placed travel restrictions on seven new provinces in Italy, Japan and Iran in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the areas are Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna in Italy; Hokkaido in Japan as well as Tehran, Qom and Gilan in Iran.

"The Government has decided to temporarily restrict visitors – regardless of nationality – from entering Malaysia if they have been to these cities or provinces within 14 days of their arrival in our country.

"Malaysians are also advised to postpone travel to the areas for the time being," said Dr Noor Hisham at a press conference here on Thursday (March 5).

He was speaking after a high-level meeting on Covid-19 here which was chaired by Government Chief Secretary Datuk Seri Mohd Zuki Ali.

Prior to this, Malaysia had issued travel restrictions to visitors from Daegu city and Cheongdo district in Korea, as well as Hubei, Zhejiang and Changdu provinces in China.

Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysians in the affected areas are advised to take precautionary measures, increase their personal health care and to constantly adhere to instructions from local authorities.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham also announced five new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, bringing the tally to 55 confirmed cases.

All the five new cases are from the same cluster that originated from Malaysia's 26th Covid-19 patient, who is an UDA Holdings board member.

"These new cases are close contacts of the positive cases from the same cluster.

"As of now, the total number of positive cases for this cluster is 26. Investigation and contact tracing for this cluster is still ongoing," he said.

The Health Ministry has so far traced 258 close contacts of Patient 26.

Of the total, 29 have tested negative while 211 are still awaiting test results.