Ministry criticised for allowing Travel Fair to proceed despite COVID-19 outbreak

Despite the Prime Minister’s call to postpone or cancel all forms of events and gathering, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) was criticised for allowing the Malaysia Travel Fair 2020 to proceed. The event took place at PWTC from 13 to 15 March 2020.

When the Ministry shared photos and videos of the event via their Facebook and Twitter accounts, they were heavily criticised for carrying out the event amid the sharp rise of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Netizens have described the decision has reckless and the event should have been cancelled to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. The Minister of Health had recently advised against any mass gathering exceeding 50 people.

After receiving heavy criticism, the Ministry has deleted all content related to the Malaysia Travel Fair 2020 from their social platforms. However, you can still view photos and videos from the event at the Travel Fair’s Facebook page.

From the looks of it, the organiser has taken measures such as requiring visitors to self-declare if they have past travel history to affected countries and if they are having symptoms that are related to COVID-19. The organisers have also conducted sanitising and screening at the event.

At the moment, Malaysia has 428 COVID-19 cases with 190 new cases reported today. 41 new cases were reported on Saturday, while 39 new cases were reported on Friday. So far 42 cases have recovered and discharged, while 386 cases are currently receiving treatment.

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