The Malaysian government has announced that long-term pass holders who are citizens of India, Indonesia and the Philippines will be barred from entering the country effective Sep 7.

In a press conference on Tuesday (Sep 1), Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision was made after considering the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases within the three countries.

“The barring would be applicable to Permanent Residents (PR), holders of Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) passes, expatriates of all categories, those with resident passes, spouse visas and students who are citizens of the respective countries.

“This decision was made as per the advice of the Ministry of Health, which felt that the barring would be an effective method in curbing 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.

To date, Malaysia has more than 9,300 cases and 128 fatalities.