KUALA LUMPUR (ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Cinemas halls in Malaysia have been given the green light to reopen as the most heavily populated regions of the country will enter a more relaxed movement control order (MCO) from Friday (March 5).

Selangor, Johor and Penang states, together with the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, will switch to the second-tier conditional MCO (CMCO) from Friday, after being under the stricter MCO from mid-January to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

A posting on the Facebook of the National Film Development Corp Malaysia (Finas), said filming activities and cinema operations are allowed in CMCO and recovery MCO (RMCO) states.

These players will have to follow health protocols such as recording the temperatures of everyone involved and maintaining physical distancing in cinema halls.

Four other states - Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak and Perak - are also under the CMCO.

The other five Malaysian states and the remaining two federal territories of Putrajaya and Labuan are under the third-tier RMCO.

Hit by poor attendance, cinemas in Malaysia began to shut down in stages since November last year.

Movie theatres reopened in December but were shut again when MCO 2.0 was implemented in mid-January this year.

Malaysia reported 1,555 new cases on Tuesday (March 2), the lowest daily infection reported this year, with a cumulative total of 304,135.