place on 18 march 2020, all citizens were prohibited from leaving the country while foreigners were also prohibited from entering the country. since the first wave of the virus was reported, thermal scanners were introduced at border points with the malaysian health authorities placed on high alert. after the ban on travellers from hubei on 27 january, the malaysian federal government extended its ban to the chinese provinces of jiangsu and zhejiang on 9 february. the state of sabah expanded their travel restriction to all points of entry by air, sea or land starting 8 february, involving everyone except sabahan citizens with recent travel history to mainland china within 14 days, while sabahan citizens with such travel history must undergo a 14-day quarantine at home. the state of sarawak closed its borders to all chinese visitors with immediate effect on 1 february, except for people with employment passes, student passes or long-term social visit passes. however, those visitors were required to undergo self-quarantine at home for 14 days. with the increasing cases in south korea, both sabah and sarawak governments began to extend their travel restrictions into the country from 1 march. on 4 march, sarawak further added italy and iran into its travel restrictions list. on 5 march, malaysia added seven regions towards its travel restriction list, which include lombardy, veneto and emilia-romagna in italy; hokkaido in japan; and tehran, qom and gilan in iran. by 10 march, sabah also began to add italy and iran into its restrictions list. on 11 march, malaysia announced a full restriction on foreign nationals directly from italy, iran and south korea starting from 13 march, while malaysians from those countries will be quarantined for 14 days. following the 13 march denmark lockdown, malaysia has added the country into its travel ban list effective from 14 march. on 6 april, visitors from the following regions can enter malaysia by air exclusively: angola, burkina faso, burundi, cameroon, central african republic, congo, dr congo, ivory coast, djibouti, equatorial guinea, eritrea, ethiopia, ghana, guinea-bissau, liberia, mali, mozambique, niger, nigeria, rwanda and western sahara. on 16 may, the malaysian government announced that it would be allowing "malaysia my second home" (mm2h) programme members who were stranded overseas to return to malaysia from 17 may. however, they must undergo testing for covid-19 in the place that they are in and must be certified free of the coronavirus in order to enter malaysia. they will also be quarantined for 14 days. on 1 september, senior minister ismail sabri yaakob announced that long-term pass holders from india, indonesia and the philippines would be unable to enter malaysia due to a spike of cases in those countries effective 7 september. on 7 september, the immigration department banned nationals from 23 countries with a high number of covid-19 cases including the united states, brazil, india, russia, peru, colombia, south africa, mexico, spain, argentina, chile, iran, bangladesh, the united kingdom, saudi arabia, pakistan, france, turkey, italy, germany, iraq, philippines and indonesia. the ban includes permanent residents, participants of the "malaysia my second home" program, expatriates, professional visit pass holders, the spouses of malaysian citizens, and students. on 10 october 2021, prime minister ismail sabri yaakob announced that all interstate and international travel restrictions has been lifted for citizens and residents fully vaccinated against covid-19 since 90% of its adult population had been fully vaccinated. while citizens and residents of all states and territories welcomed and enjoyed this decision, sabah is the only state that defers the application of this decision. sabah resumes inter-district travel on 14 october and will allow interstate and international travels on 1 november. on 7 november, the united states embassy in kuala lumpur confirmed that malaysians travelling to the us could show their proof of vaccination on the mysejahtera app as well as a negative covid-19 test. on 8 november, the malaysian and singaporean governments reached an agreement to establish a quarantine free-travel lane for fully vaccinated travellers between kuala lumpur international airport and changi international airport, which comes into effect on 29 november. on 28 december, the malaysian government lifted its travel ban on travellers from south africa, zimbabwe, mozambique and malawi, botswana, eswatini, lesotho and namibia; stating that the omicron variant had spread beyond southern africa. on 12 january 2022, health minister khairy jamaluddin confirmed that travellers heading to malaysia who are fully vaccinated and have previously contracted covid-19 do not need to undergo mandatory quarantine. travellers would have to present evidence that they had been fully vaccinated. those who had been infected with covid-19 had to present evidence they had been infected 11 to 60 days prior to travel to malaysia and a "fit to travel" letter from the health facility where they were treated. on 27 april 2022, health minister khairy jamaluddin said malaysia will remove pre-flight and on-arrival testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers and those who have just recovered from covid-19 beginning on may 1. masks would remain mandatory for indoor activities and on public transport, he said. overseas travel alert and quarantine arrangements the following are warnings and quarantine arrangements for inbound and outbound travel: alert level country date of issue cancellation date note prohibit all countries 18 march 2020 31 march 2022 with the movement control order put in place since 18 march, all citizens have been prohibited from leaving the country with foreigners also prohibited from entering the country. repatriation of malaysian nationals abroad record form of repatriation for malaysian non-main officials abroad departure date number of passengers departure airport arrival airport 4 february 2020 107 wuhan – tianhe kl – international 26 february 2020 66 21 march 2020 212 tashkent – islam karimov 22 march 2020 55 (comprising 46 malaysians, eight singaporeans and one indonesian) tehran – imam khomeini 27 march 2020 162 hcmc – tan son nhat 30 march 2020 179 amritsar – sri guru ram dass jee 31 march 2020 144 yangon – mingaladon 1 april 2020 121 bangkok – suvarnabhumi 2 april 2020 160 medan – kualanamu 11 april 2020 110 islamabad – fateh jang the malaysian government has made the repatriation of its citizens abroad a priority; beginning with the first repatriations from china. during the first repatriation, two persons were found to be infected with the virus and were subsequently quarantined and treated in the country until they have fully recovered. on 21 march, a total of 212 malaysians arrived from uzbekistan through a flight sponsored by the uzbekistan government which is also being used to repatriate uzbek citizens in malaysia. on that same day, 372 malaysians departed tamil nadu on two chartered flights. on 22 march, it was reported that the malaysian government was waiting for the indian government's permission to organise six more flights to evacuate malaysians still in india. on 31 march, deputy foreign minister kamaruddin jaffar confirmed that 4,374 malaysians were stranded abroad due to the travel restrictions and delays created by the global coronavirus pandemic. this figure only consists of malaysians who had bought return tickets but were unable to return due to travel restrictions. according to kamaruddin, 2,156 malaysians are stranded in india, 680 in indonesia, 337 in thailand, 226 in australia, 153 in new zealand, 128 in pakistan, and 121 in saudi arabia. on 5 april, deputy foreign minister kamaruddin announced that the government had brought back 4,811 stranded malaysians from affected countries. he also upgraded the number of malaysians stranded abroad to 2,298: 1,016 in india, 172 in thailand, 136 in new zealand, 128 in pakistan, 122 in vietnam, 83 in saudi arabia, 77 in australia, 66 in the philippines, 65 in sri lanka, and 43 in nepal. on 6 may 2021, foreign minister hishamuddin hussein confirmed that the malaysian government would begin evacuating citizens from the northern and western regions of india via new delhi and mumbai in response to a surge of cases in those regions. domestic travel on 7 june 2020, prime minister muhyiddin yassin announced that interstate travel would be allowed from 10 june except in areas classified under the enhanced movement control order (emco). on 13 june, senior minister ismail sabri yaakob announced that malaysians from peninsular malaysia, sabah, and labuan would be allowed to enter sarawak without having to seek permission from the sarawak disaster management committee (sdmc) and take covid-19 pcr tests prior to leaving for the state. on 15 june, health minister adham baba proposed retaining a ban on interstate travel during the eid al-fitr period in response to rising cases that week. in march 2021, sabah's districts were grouped into "zones" by the state government during the recovery movement control order, and travel was possible within these zones instead of just within districts. this was in part to boost domestic tourism and was seen as successful by the government. on 8 may 2021, senior minister ismail sabri yaakob confirmed that all interstate and inter-district travel without police approval would be banned across the country from 10 may to 6 june 2021. overseas travel and quarantine on 31 march 2020, defence minister datuk seri ismail sabri yaakob announced that all malaysians returning from overseas would have to undergo a compulsory two-week quarantine at designated quarantine centres around the country. on 5 april 2020, the johor immigration department announced that malaysians with singaporean work permits would be required to take swab tests in singaporean clinics and hospitals to show that they are free of the coronavirus in order to return to johor. on 18 april, the united states embassy in kuala lumpur advised us nationals in malaysia wishing to return home to make commercial arrangements as soon as possible unless they had made plans to remain in malaysia. the us embassy also clarified that the united states government was not planning to charter flights to evacuate its citizens. on 27 june, prime minister muhyiddin yassin and his singaporean counterpart lee hsien loong agreed that their governments would collaborate to establish a periodic commuting arrangement (pca) allowing residents from both nations who hold long-term immigration passes for business and work purposes in the other country to periodically return to their home countries for short-term home leave. on 14 july, malaysian foreign minister hishammuddin hussein and singaporean foreign minister vivian balakrishnan announced that cross-border travel and traffic between the two countries will resume on 10 august 2020 under two schemes: the reciprocal green lane (rgl) and the periodic commuting arrangement (pca). the reciprocal green lane will allow essential business and official travel between the two countries while the periodic commuting arrangement will allow singaporean and malaysian residents who hold long-term immigration business and work passes to enter for work purposes. on 23 july, senior minister ismail sabri yaakob announced that all travellers entering malaysia would have to undergo mandatory quarantine at hotels and quarantine centres commencing 24 july. on 30 july, immigration department director-general datuk khairul dzaimee warned that foreigners refusing to pay the mandatory quarantine costs of rm 4,700 would have their long-term social visa passes revoked. malaysians only have to pay half the quarantine cost. on 13 december, the director general of health noor hisham announced that the health ministry has reduced the quarantine period from two weeks to 10 days for all travellers and close contacts of covid-19-positive patients. on 30 january 2021, the singaporean government announced that it would suspend its reciprocal "travel bubble" agreement with malaysia in response to a spike of cases worldwide and the emergence of new variants. on 23 march, the singaporean and malaysian foreign ministers vivian balakrishnan and hishamuddin hussein announced that the two governments plan to recognise each other's covid-19 vaccine certificates with the goal of restoring cross-border travel in the near future. as of september 2021, the two governments have not yet reached to a conclusion on reopening borders. the malaysian foreign minister, saifuddin abdullah said that malaysia will continue negotiating with singapore on border reopening. from september 21 onwards, fully vaccinated travellers entering malaysia will be able to apply for home quarantine via a new portal on the ministry of health's website. however, they will require to make a pre-departure covid pcr test and will have to apply 7–10 days before their intended travel. on 24 september, national recovery council chairman muhyiddin yassin confirmed that malaysia and singapore would recognise each other's vaccination certificates to facilitate movement