Mission all set - Plane departs to evacuate M’sians from Wuhan

CORONAVIRUS | A 12-crew plane has departed for Wuhan, China on a mission to bring home the 141 Malaysians and their families there.

They include 116 Malaysians plus 25 immediate family members who are non-citizens.

The AirAsia AK8294 flight departed from KLIA2 for Wuhan’s Tianhe International Airport at 4.30pm today.

Along with the crew, eight mission workers and 500,000 medical gloves were also on the plane. This is the first batch of the 18 million gloves donated by nine Malaysian glove manufacturers to the government of China to aid its efforts to combat the ongoing coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV).

In a statement, the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) reiterated that the 141 will undergo a health screening before those who are healthy are allowed to board the flight back to Kuala Lumpur. 

Those who exhibit symptoms will be kept in Wuhan for treatment.

“For now we are unable to determine how long the health screening, immigration and permission processes will take,” it said.

Once they arrive on home soil, all crew and passengers will undergo a second health screening at the Air Disaster Unit (ADU) at KLIA. Images from Nadma showed that screening and decontamination facilities were on standby at the ADU. 

Those who pass the screening will then be bussed to a Home Surveillance Centre and quarantined for 14 days for further observation.

Nadma said it will inform family members of those quarantined about these processes.

Meanwhile, those found with 2019-nCoV symptoms will be hospitalised immediately.

Embassy staff in Wuhan

Meanwhile, Wisma Putra announced that six of its staff from the Malaysian embassy in Beijing have arrived in Wuhan to assist with the mission.

“(The) focus of the six personnel advance team in Wuhan was on setting up the secretariat, contacting the relevant authorities there to ensure the smooth movement of Malaysians, customs clearance for humanitarian assistance et cetera.

“Matters have been proceeding smoothly, with good cooperation from the Chinese authorities,” the ministry said in a statement.

A video published on Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah showed the six in surgical masks.

“We ask for your prayers that our mission in Wuhan will be a success,” one team member said in the clip.

As of Feb 3, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Malaysia remains at eight. All are China nationals.

As of Sunday (Feb 2), South China Morning Post reported that the death toll of the virus in China was at 361, up 57 from the day before.

New cases rose by 2,829 to 17,297 cases.