A passenger wears a mask at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang January 21, 2020. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 ― An online petition has been launched to urge the government to ban Chinese Nationals from entering the country, with some 149,000 in support of the call.

The petitioner named Muhammad Zaim Yusran Mohd Zaidy said there was an urgent need to prevent Chinese nationals from entering the country due to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

“The new virus is widely spread throughout the world because of its unhygienic lifestyle.

“The government should think more about the health of Malaysians. Don't wait until there is death among Malaysian people then only the government wants to take some preventive action,’’ said Muhammad Zaim on the petition page.

To date, health officials are still finding the exact origin and cause of the 2019-nCoV.

At the time of writing 149,125 people have signed the petition out of its 150,000 goals. The petition had gone online yesterday on change.org.

Cases of c2019-nCoV have been confirmed in Japan, South Korean, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, the US, France, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Malaysia yesterday recorded its fourth case of coronavirus yesterday, the latest is a 40-year-old man from Wuhan, China, who arrived in Johor Baru on Wednesday via bus from Singapore.

The man had come in with a group of 17 Chinese tourists in total, which also included his wife and child.

While health screening done by the Johor State Health Department found the rest of the group not showing any potential symptoms, the group is placed under quarantine in a designated area pending the results of further tests.

On January 24, China's central government has ordered travel Agencies to suspend sales of domestic and international tours in a bid to contain the virus outbreak.

The Chinese government had already imposed travel restrictions into Wuhan and a dozen other cities, restricting the movement of some 56 million people to contain the outbreak.

On January 24, the Philippines government had sent back 500 Chinese tourists who came from Wuhan.

North Korea had also banned all foreign tourists following news of the outbreak.

Similarly, dozens of other countries have advised their citizens to cut all non-essential travel to Wuhan.