Malaysia's border could reopen by early Q2 this year: Health Minister

PETALING JAYA • A realistic target to reopen Malaysia's borders is early in the second quarter of this year, said the country's Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday.

"The Health Ministry will come up with the standard operating procedure for border reopening, and there are several stages to go through for it to be approved," he said. He added that it would be decided by the Covid-19 pandemic management committee chaired by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and a quartet of ministers led by Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

"As it involves a huge national policy, the decision to open up the country's borders is not under the Health Ministry. It could be in the early second quarter of this year but only the prime minister can make such an announcement," Mr Khairy said after a visit to a private clinic yesterday.

Earlier, Prime Minister Ismail said the government has no issues allowing Malaysians to return to vote in next month's Johor election, but those living in Singapore will have to adhere to the Republic's Covid-19 rules.

He said that Malaysia would want its citizens to come back to vote as it is their right.

"But the borders are closed due to the pandemic and those coming back will need to comply with Singapore's regulations," he said on Friday when asked if the government would open a special lane for Malaysians wanting to return to vote in the March 12 state election.

Asked if there were any discussions on increasing the current vaccinated travel lane quota for land, Mr Ismail said that would involve Malaysia's Health Minister and his Singapore counterpart.

"They (Singapore) are also concerned about the high number of cases in their country. We cannot be abrupt or rush into this," he said, adding that many countries remained cautious.

Malaysia has also been experiencing a spike in cases, logging 27,808 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, with Johor contributing 2,716 cases to that tally while 75 per cent of intensive care units in the state were occupied.

The deadline for Johoreans living overseas to register as postal voters was Friday.

On the reopening of borders based on Malaysia's National Recovery Council (NRC) recommendations, Mr Ismail said there were differing views between those asking for them to be fully open, and others saying that the government should intervene and be cautious because of rising infections.

He also said he understood the NRC's recommendations were based on a wish to revive the economy, especially when the worst-hit sector was the tourism and hotel industry.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK