Teachers, students who visited China recently must follow 14-day self-quarantine

CORONAVIRUS | Students and teachers who have recently visited China are required to be quarantined at home for 14 days before it is safe from them to return to school.

According to The Star, Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching (photo) said this measure had been in place since Jan 30 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"Teachers and students who visited China recently would only be allowed back into their respective schools after a 14-day period of self-quarantine at home.

"They are also required to go through health screening before entering the school, even if they do not show any symptoms," she told reporters after officiating the Ziarah Cakna programme at the Kulai District Education Office.

Teo also reminded the public that new registration for Chinese national students was also being postponed until further notice.

Thus far, there have been 16 reported cases in Malaysia, affecting 12 China nationals and four Malaysians.

Three of the China nationals affected have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

The number of deaths in China’s central Hubei province from a coronavirus outbreak had risen by 81 to 780 as of Saturday, the province’s health commission said in a statement on its website this morning.

A further 2,147 cases have been detected in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, taking the total in the province to 27,100.

This brings the death toll in mainland China to 803 while Hong Kong and the Philippines have reported one death each.

There have now been 37,045 cases reported globally with 2,152 people have recovered.