Malaysians at the World Ijtima 2020 will go for mandatory quarantine

The Ministry of Health has made it mandatory for all Malaysians who participated in the World Ijtima 2020 in Sulawesi, Indonesia to be quarantined upon their return.

Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, said the move was to ensure that the current COVID-19 outbreak could be contained from spreading further.

He said all of them would be placed at their port of disembarkation to be screened before being quarantined at a designated location.

“We know that almost 83 Malaysians attended the rally and we have decided that when they return to the country, they will be put through screening and then they will be quarantined for 14 days at a designated quarantine centre.

"This is mandatory because they are coming home from a country in which have COVID-19 cases," he said at a press conference here Thursday.

Six more people have died of COVID-19 in Indonesia Thursday, raising the national death toll from the disease to 25. As of noon today, the number of positive cases had risen to 309, an increase of 82 over yesterday’s 227.

Earlier, the media reported that the gathering, the World World Ijtima 2020 Summit involving thousands of Muslims in the South Sulawesi region, was cancelled due to concerns over the spread of the COVID-19.