A Malaysian hospital today said it taken down posters that offended some for asking visitors to declare if they’d recently been to Singapore and Sabah to deter spread of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The poster was removed after a number of complaints, mainly by those in Singapore and the Malaysian state of Sabah, for equating them with Wuhan, China, where the outbreak of the deadly SARS-like virus began and the vast majority of cases remain concentrated.
“KPJ Rawang Specialist Hospital takes note of all parties’ feedback on the poster snapshot. We deeply regret and apologize for this oversight,” a statement posted to the hospital’s Facebook page today read.
“Please rest assured there was no intention of offending any Individual or State or Country. We have taken corrective action to remove the poster immediately,” it added.
The hospital’s poster, which has been circulating online, listed what seems a common-sense appeal for people who’ve set foot in all four locales where the virus has been spreading to notify staff.
“Dear valued customers, please inform us if you have been to China, Wuhan, Singapore or Sabah or if you have close contact with positive novel coronavirus patients in the past 14 days,” it read.
But upset, people were. The poster triggered complaints from Singaporeans offended that they were being unfairly singled out. The hospital that put up the poster is located in the Rawang town of Malaysia’s Selangor state.
“Our neighbor already asking about travel history to SG. If they get more paranoid, will affect our weekend [Johor Bahru] shoppers or not?” a post on Facebook page All Singapore Stuff said.
One person pointed out that numerous Malaysians are already in Singapore nearly every day.
“Our neighbors are working in Singapore and returning back daily to their homeland,” Facebook user Abhilash Krishnan wrote.
“That’s okay, because they’re confident that the virus comes from us,” AL Amin responded, snarkily.
The 2019-nCoV coronavirus has infected more than 20,000 and killed at least 491 people in China. It has spread to Singapore, where 24 are now infected, as well as Malaysia, where a number of the cases were confirmed following recent travels to Singapore.
Malaysia yesterday announced its first citizen to be infected following a business trip to the Lion City where he attended a meeting involving Chinese individuals. A South Korean man who had made contact with the same Malaysian was today confirmed by the South Korean government to be infected by the virus.
There were at least 10 confirmed cases of the virus in Malaysia as of today.
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