SIBU, Feb 4: Civil servant Balachandar Subramaniam and his family have arrived safely in the Malaysian capital this morning together with other Malaysians who had been under a quarantine in Wuhan, China following the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus.
He and his family were among 107 people who returned on board AirAsia flight AK8265 from Wuhan, which touched down at KLIA at 5.57am.
All the passengers on the flight are currently undergoing a 14-day quarantine at the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) in Bandar Enstek, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
Balachandar, who has been working in Sarawak with the Department of Minerals and Geoscience before going to China to pursue his doctorate on a scholarship, expressed gratitude to Malaysian embassy personnel in China who have worked hard to bring the stranded Malaysians home.
“The experience of being locked up in the city of Wuhan cannot be imagined in words but it is an experience that no one should ever experience,” he said when contacted.
Also on the same flight to Malaysia was Sarawakian Ivan Yao, 22, a second-year student at the Wuhan Geosciences University.
Balachandar also spoke of the difficulty experienced by his family of having to be confined to their apartment in China over the past two weeks.
As the family could not go out, he and his wife would keep themselves updated with the latest news about the virus, and read research papers and literature while their children occupied themselves with their studies and playing games. — DayakDaily
