Malaysians returning from overseas and undergoing compulsory quarantine here will have to start paying 50% of the hotel fees beginning 1 June 2020.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, during his daily press conference, said that the government will bear the other half of the cost.

Foreigners, including permanent residents, entering the country will have to pay for the hotels they are quarantined at in full.

"The Security Council (MKN) has also decided to make it compulsory for everyone entering Malaysia to sign a letter agreeing to pay 50% of the cost, for Malaysians, and 100% of the cost if they are not a citizen at their nearest Malaysian embassies.

"The embassies also will release an approval letter to land in Malaysia and the immigration department will release an instruction to all airlines to ensure that all passengers have the letter before flying," he said.

Refusing to pay


Be prepared to hand over your letter together with your boarding passes
Ismail Sabri said that decision was made following incidents where foreign spouses married to Malaysians and have permanent resident status here refused to pay for the hotel fee when leaving.

As of 8 a.m on 20 May, there were 259 quarantine centres in operation, with 17, 449 individuals going through compulsory quarantine.

Multiply that with RM150 per day, which is what the government has allocated for each person; the amount is quite a substantial one.