KLANG - Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday (Jan 26) that it is just not possible to quarantine all tourists from China upon arrival as there are too many of them, as his deputy prime minister held a high-level emergency meeting over the issue.

"Visitors from China sometimes increase up to two million people.

"Where to keep them?" he said, as quoted by The Star online news, when asked by reporters if there is a possibility of Chinese tourists being stopped and quarantined upon arrival.

Speaking to reporters after attending a Chinese New Year event in Klang town, Selangor, Tun Mahathir said precautionary measures are being taken by the Malaysian authorities.

He said those showing even the slightest symptom of coronavirus infection will be immediately quarantined.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was chairing an emergency meeting over the issue.

Present at the meeting were Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud and Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik.

Malaysia's tourist arrivals stood at 20.1 million in the first nine months of last year.

Tourists from China totalled 2.4 million in the Jan-Sept period, the third biggest number of visitors after Singaporeans and Indonesians, government data showed.

Malaysia recorded 25.8 million arrivals in 2018.

The questions were asked by reporters on Sunday amid widespread concern over the coronavirus that has spread into other countries by travelling Chinese citizens.

Four people have been confirmed to have the Wuhan coronavirus in Malaysia.

The first three Chinese citizens, who entered Malaysia via Johor Baru, are the wife, 65, and grandsons of a 66-year-old man from Wuhan, who is currently being treated in Singapore for the same virus. The children are aged 11 and two.

The fourth case is a 40-year-old man who is also from Wuhan, who was part of a tour group that travelled by bus to the southern state of Johor from Singapore on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Johor's state Health Department have met with the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry and the Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association to teach travel agency operators how to handle tourists from China, The Star reported.

Johor Tourism, Women, Family and Community Development Committee chairman Liow Cai Tung said travel agencies are required to notify the health department if they spot any tourists with flu-like symptoms.

PM Mahathir, asked on Sunday at what stage Malaysia would emulate the Philippines by turning back visitors from China, said the situation cannot be ascertained at this point of time.

"We cannot predict at the moment. Many countries face the problem.

"We have to assess when is the critical stage but at the moment it is not yet critical to the point where we have to stop tourism," said Dr Mahathir, as quoted by The Star.

He added the Malaysian authorities will keep on checking on tourists whenever there is some indication that they maybe infected.

Former Malaysian premier Najib Razak said on Sunday that Malaysia should immediately suspend its regulation that allow mainland Chinese tourists to enter without a visas, to reduce the numbers who visit the country.

Meanwhile, nearly 270,000 people have signed a petition at change.org urging the Malaysian government to bar Chinese nationals from entering the South-east Asian nation, due to the Wuhan virus scare.