Malaysia stops issuing visas to Indian citizens<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): The Malaysian High Commission in New
\nDelhi has stopped issuing visas to Indian citizens in a move to
\nprevent the plague outbreak there spreading to Malaysia, local
\nnewspapers reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
The High Commission's information officer Dunstan Melling was
\nquoted as saying the High Commission had rejected all 40 visa
\napplications it received on Friday, the day the government's
\ndirective was issued.<\/p>\n
The directive to stop issuing visas, also in effect at the
\nMalaysian consulate in the southern city of Madras, would be in
\nforce until further notice, he said.<\/p>\n
Malaysia's deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub said on
\nSaturday the visa ban would be lifted once the Indian government
\nprovided an assurance the outbreak of the pneumonic plague was
\nunder control.<\/p>\n
Officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.<\/p>\n
National carrier Malaysian Airlines (MAS) suspended all
\nflights to and from India last week because of the outbreak.<\/p>\n
The Star newspaper reported that every passenger arriving from
\nIndia will be quarantined for six days upon arrival in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
The paper quoted health minister Lee Kim Sai as saying the
\nmeasure was necessary as merely screening arriving passengers was
\nconsidered ineffective.<\/p>\n
The plague outbreak in India has so far killed 51 people and
\nthere are some 3,000 other suspected cases across the country.<\/p>\n
In Bangkok, Thai Airways International (THAI) has suspended
\nflights to New Delhi and Calcutta until the plague epidemic in
\nIndia ends, an airline official said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Thailand's flag carrier halted one-way flights to and from
\nthose cities late Saturday, the official said, adding that the
\nban would be reviewed on a \"day-to-day basis.\"<\/p>\n
Last Saturday, THAI ordered crews flying to New Delhi and
\nbeyond not to stay overnight in the Indian capital.<\/p>\n
Staff on flights to and from London and Amsterdam via New
\nDelhi normally spend the night in the Indian capital to rest,
\nwith the crew that arrived the previous day taking the second
\nhalf of the journey.<\/p>\n
Crews<\/p>\n
But the airline ordered its crews Saturday not to leave the
\nairport, and for the same crew to fly the second leg of the trip,
\ndailies reported.<\/p>\n
To ease the extra work, the airline has added one extra pilot
\nand one more cabin attendant to each flight, reports said.<\/p>\n
To prevent its spread to Thailand, doctors now board every
\nplane from India that arrives at Bangkok's international airport
\nand examine all passengers and crew before they are allowed to
\nleave the aircraft.<\/p>\n
So far no one infected with the plague has been detected here.<\/p>\n
In Yangon, Myanmar is taking nationwide preventive measures to
\nstem the entry of the pneumonic plague that has struck
\nneighboring India, a state-run newspaper reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
Health officials are checking at airports for symptoms of
\nplague among incoming passengers, the New Light of Myanmar said.
\nThe country is also launching a nationwide sanitation drive to
\nminimize the rat population while warning the public to report
\nany symptom of the killer disease immediately.<\/p>\n
The report noted Myanmar saw 528 cases of plague with three
\ndeaths in 1992, and 87 cases without any fatality in 1993.<\/p>",
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