The construction of East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) in Malaysia is not expected to be affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. Credit: Bryan Carrel.

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Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) operator Malaysia Rail Link has asked some of its employees from Wuhan to work from home due to the Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic.

Malaysia Rail Link CEO Darwis Abdul Razak said that this will not affect construction. The majority of the 13 Wuhan-based employees are management-level staff members.

The company employs 1,000 workers from mainland China. Approximately 800 workers did not travel to the country during its new year celebrations.

A total of 200 Chinese workers returned to Malaysia after the Chinese New Year period. Razak said that they have now resumed work after undergoing a mandatory self-quarantine period.

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Malaysia has currently banned people from Hubei province from crossing its borders.

The epidemic has killed 2,012 people so far and infected more than 75,000 people worldwide. Malaysia has recorded 22 confirmed cases of the virus.

The East Coast Rail Link forms part of China’s belt and road initiative. It will connect Port Klang on the Straits of Malacca to Pengkalan Kubor in Malaysia’s north-eastern peninsula.

Last April, Malaysia and China signed a revised agreement to resume the construction of the suspended East Coast Rail Link (ECRL).

In 2018, Malaysia postponed construction of the rail link due to its high costs and renegotiated with the Chinese authorities to reduce the scale of the project.

After negotiations, the countries reduced the project cost investment to MYR44bn ($10.7bn).

Last month, major banking groups, including Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Credit Suisse, asked their Hong Kong employees to work from home if they have recently travelled from China.

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