Wuhan virus: Malaysian hospital draws flak for asking about travel to Singapore and Sabah

Temperature screenings and questions on travel history are becoming routine in the wake of the recent coronavirus outbreak, but that didn't stop some Singaporeans from taking a Malaysian hospital's poster a little too personally.

KPJ Rawang Specialist Hospital said in a Facebook post on Feb 5 that they have removed a poster that had asked visitors to declare if they had been to "China, Wuhan, Singapore or Sabah".

The poster was first circulated on social media for its inexplicable inclusion of Sabah, which currently has no confirmed cases of the virus, before Singapore caught wind of it.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/allsgstuff/photos/a.1993158977491488/3185103701630337/?type=3&theatre[/embed]

Singapore's inclusion makes a little more sense given our 28 confirmed cases of the virus as of Feb 5, which put us at third place in the world (Japan comes in at second with 45 confirmed cases).

These numbers, however, are dwarfed by the 28,018 confirmed cases in China (as of Feb 6), with Hubei province accounting for 19,665 of the cases.

The disparity had some Singaporean netizens upset over being put in the same category as other virus hotspots.

On the flip side, others pointed out that the hospital's precautions weren't any different from those undertaken by other countries... including Singapore.

For example, India has started screening passengers arriving from Singapore.

Singapore has also set up temperature screening measures at all land, air and sea checkpoints and enacted travel restrictions — all visitors who have travelled to mainland China in the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit in Singapore.

In response to the criticism, KPJ Rawang Specialist Hospital apologised for the oversight and clarified that it had "no intention of offending any individual or state or country".

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/KPJRawangOFFICIAL/photos/p.495913877778490/495913877778490/?type=3&theatre[/embed]

For the latest updates on the Wuhan virus, visit here.

kimberlylim@asiaone.com