KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians intending on taking trips overseas should take out travel insurance.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said this was to ensure that they would be covered should any untoward incident occur.
She also advised Malaysians to look at weather forecasts for the places they were intending to visit.
She said travel insurance had made it easier to arrange the repatriation of the body of Siti Nur Iesmawida Ismail, who was killed when an earthquake hit Lombok on Sunday morning.
“I understand that the cost of bringing back her remains was RM24,000 and since she had taken up travel insurance before she left to Lombok, the arrangements were made easier.
“The cost (of travel insurance) is not much... we need to be always ready for anything,” she said after paying her respects to Siti Nur Iesmawida’s family at the Ar Rahimah mosque in Kampung Pandan.
Siti Nur Iesmawida was getting ready to leave Mount Rinjani after climbing the mountain the previous day when the 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck. She was trapped in the house where she was staying when it collapsed.
At least 14 people, including Siti Nur Iesmawida, were reported killed in the earthquake.