Malaysians Free To Send Mail Overseas Again After Long Pandemic Ban

Posted by African Examiner Asia, Featured, Latest Headlines Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Malaysians from Wednesday can resume sending international mail after a break of more than a year which the national postal service put down to the Coronavirus pandemic’s impact on air transport.

Sending is to be limited to 56 countries “due to limited international flights available,” POS Malaysia said, listing many European countries and most of Malaysia’s neighbours, but not the U.S.,.

When the suspension of outbound international mail was imposed last year, Malaysia had reported around 9,000 cases of Coronavirus and 124 related deaths.

When POS Malaysia lifted the ban on Wednesday, Health Ministry announced 334 additional fatalities recorded the day before and a national death toll to over 24,000.

Over 2.1 million virus cases have been reported among the almost 33-million populations.

The government earlier on Tuesday said that over 80 per cent of adults had been double-jabbed.

POS Malaysia had allowed the resumption of expensive express mail to 10 neighbouring countries but last month reported a net loss of 107 million ringgit (28 million dollars) for the first six months of 2021.

POS Malaysia’s Wednesday announcement ends a suspension applied since July 2020, which was attributed at the time to “varying levels of restrictions across destination countries on flights, airport closures and cross border services.”

The number of flights to and from Malaysia plunged after a border closure, which remains in place, was imposed in March last year.

Opposition lawmaker Tony Pua on Wednesday called for the easing of remaining restrictions on Malaysians who want to leave.

He argued that the requirements made little sense when case numbers in Malaysia were generally higher than elsewhere.

NAN