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KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government has announced that long-term pass holders who are citizens of India, Indonesia and the Philippines will not be able to enter the country as of September 7.
At a press conference on Tuesday (September 1), Chief Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision was made after considering the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases within the three countries.
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“The exclusion would apply to permanent residents (PR), Malaysian My Second Home (MM2H) pass holders, expatriates of all categories, those with resident passes, spouse visas and students who are citizens of the respective countries.
“This decision was made in accordance with the advice of the Ministry of Health, which considered that the ban would be an effective method to slow the community spread of the COVID-19 virus resulting from import cases,” he said.
Last Sunday, 15 of the 17 new cases in Malaysia were imported cases. Of the 15 cases, 12 were Malaysians and foreigners arriving from India.
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To date, Malaysia has more than 9,300 cases and 128 deaths.
On Monday, India recorded a total of 78,512 cases, the highest ever recorded in the world in one day.
Also on Monday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the partial COVID-19 restrictions will be in effect for another month, after 3,446 cases were recorded in one day.
As for Indonesia, 2,743 new cases were registered on September 1, while deaths stood at 7,417. There are now more than 177,000 cases across the country.
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