Malaysia bans travelers from virus-affected area in China

A worker in a hazardous materials suit takes the temperature of a truck driver at a checkpoint in Huaibei in central China’s Anhui Province, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. China on Monday expanded sweeping efforts to contain a viral disease by extending the Lunar New Year holiday to keep the public at home and avoid spreading infection as the death toll rose to 80. (Chinatopix via AP)

BEIJING — Malaysia’s government has announced it will ban travelers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan and other parts of surrounding Hubei province beginning immediately.

A statement issued Monday by the Prime Minister’s Department said Malaysia would stop issuing visas for Chinese travelers from those areas.

The statement said the decision was made after consultations with experts and following advice from the World Health Organization.

Normal visa procedures will resume once the “situation returns to normal.”

The government also warned people not to spread any false information that might alarm the public.

Meanwhile, Mongolia’s official news agency said the country’s Cabinet on Monday closed border crossings with China and suspended university classes to prevent the spread of a new viral disease.

There are no confirmed cases in Mongolia of the coronavirus cases that first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and have now spread to at least a dozen countries. But the Montsame news agency said the Cabinet cited the “high risk” of the disease spreading across the country’s southern border.

The Cabinet also ordered public tours, children’s playgrounds, and other public activities in the sprawling, sparsely populated North Asian nation to close.

The report said border crossings with China were closed to vehicles and pedestrians.

Universities and other higher education institutions were ordered closed until March 2. That followed an earlier order for public schools and kindergartens to close effective Monday through March 2.

Chinese health authorities said the new coronavirus had infected 2,744 people and killed 80 as of midnight Sunday.