Malaysia will ease its public health restrictions and travel curbs from Friday, a week after kick-starting its mass inoculation campaign for Covid-19.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced yesterday that Malaysia's economic powerhouse states of Selangor, Johor and Penang, along with the Kuala Lumpur federal territory, will exit the movement control order (MCO).
They will enter the mid-tier conditional MCO (CMCO), with travel between districts of the same state allowed.
But travel between states will still be banned to curb the potential spread of the coronavirus, said Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri.
In Sabah, which is also under CMCO, inter-district travel remains banned.
The MCO was imposed on Jan 13 and extended twice as the number of infections surged, with a record daily high of 5,728 cases on Jan 30.
Daily cases have since tapered downwards.
Malaysia's National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme started last week, with health workers, teachers, firemen and elected lawmakers queueing up daily to be inoculated.
More than 32,000 have been inoculated as at Monday.
Malaysia reported 1,555 new cases yesterday, the lowest daily infection figure reported this year, with a cumulative total of 304,135.
While Malaysia has continued to register four-digit new infections daily since the beginning of this year, recoveries have outpaced new infections in the past month.
Total active cases - patients being treated for Covid-19 - peaked at 52,186 on Feb 10, raising official concern about the availability of beds at health facilities.
But yesterday, active cases totalled 24,563 - a 52 per cent drop from the peak.
Malaysia reintroduced the MCO - the strictest form of curbs where only certain sectors of the economy are allowed to operate - from mid-January following a surge in coronavirus cases last December and early January.
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>32,000
Number of Malaysians who have been inoculated as at Monday.
1,555
Number of new cases reported in Malaysia yesterday, the lowest daily infection figure this year, with a cumulative total of 304,135.
The surge was blamed on Malaysia reopening much of its economy ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Under the second-tier CMCO, more business activities are expected to be allowed, although all shops and malls will continue to adhere to health protocols such as checking customers' temperatures.
Mr Ismail Sabri said that the rest of the country, including the federal territories of Labuan and Putrajaya, will come under the recovery MCO, the third tier with the lightest curbs.
Malaysia started taking deliveries of the coronavirus vaccine late last month and started vaccination last Wednesday.
The National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last month.
Yesterday, it okayed the use of the AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines. Russia's Sputnik V is applying to join the list.
The imminent lifting of the MCO comes amid increasing demands to allow vaccinated foreign nationals to enter Malaysia via travel bubbles.
On Monday, Johor Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad said that the state government is proposing a travel bubble with Singapore to allow entry for people who have been vaccinated.
