Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said they would be brought back on commercial flights in stages as soon as possible.

This may be implemented next week, depending on the flights available.

Besides the embassy office in Beijing, Saifudin said Malaysia also had consulates in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kunming, Nanning, Shanghai and Xi’an, besides those in Taipei, with a total 34 Wisma Putra officials and 77 dependents.

The number of officers at government agencies in China, such as the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) and Tourism Malaysia, stands at 52 people, with 135 dependents.

“From that figure, we will evaluate how many officers need to stay and how many will be brought home. We will only leave behind a number of employees, either from Wisma Putra or the agencies that are really needed right now.

“We intend to bring home the children as soon as possible.

“This will not affect the work there because some tasks cannot be carried out because of the many city lockdowns.”

Speaking after a Chinese New Year function here, Saifuddin said besides the safety factor, the decision to bring them home was also made in the event of a food supply shortage, if the situation persisted. However, so far, supply is still high.

Those who are brought home have to go through the usual screening and quarantine process, he said.

Commenting on the 34 Malaysians, who were still in Wuhan because they could not board the plane yesterday due to logistics, Saifuddin said priority was still being given to bring them home. Wisma Putra has been in touch with Malaysian representatives there.

Asked if there were any plans to bring back Malaysians from other parts of China, Saifuddin said the matter would be discussed later as there was a large number of more than 30,000 people, including those who now could not move freely about.