Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has announced a travel ban for Pakistan and several other Asian countries over rising cases of COVID-19 in the last couple of weeks. Citizens from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal will not be allowed to enter Malaysia from Saturday, Geo News reported citing a notification issued by the Malaysian immigration authorities.
While announcing the conditions of the ban, senior Malaysia Minister Ismail Yakoob said: “The travel restriction imposed on citizens of these countries involved all categories holding long-term social visit passes, business travellers and for social visits.” “Exemptions are, however, given to holders of diplomatic passports and officials as stated in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961. This category will be considered to enter Malaysia using the existing standard operating procedures,” he added.
Following the announcement of the travel ban, a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight was stopped from flying to Malaysia, reported Geo News.
Due to the third wave of coronavirus, Pakistan is witnessing a spike in COVID-19 related deaths.
The novel coronavirus claimed 140 more lives across Pakistan over the previous 24 hours, pushing the death toll from the disease to 18,677, ARY News reported citing National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) data.
A total of 4,298 new infections were detected during the same period, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 850,131.
Meanwhile, observing the devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malaysian authorities in April barred entry of Indian nationals and passengers.