PUTRAJAYA – The government will no longer implement movement control for the people and economy in controlling the spread of Covid-19.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob reiterated that a more systematic, softer approach, especially on the standard operating procedures (SOP) will be used, based on the advice from the Ministry of Health (MOH).
He said, the government is continuously focussing on reducing the pandemic cases and at the same time, recover the economy.
“Two days ago, the government announced that we will no longer implement the Movement Control Order (MCO) to inhibit the movement of the people. There is no more inter-district and interstate travel ban.
“However, we are still closing our national border. The cases in other countries are still high. Therefore, we are careful, although we have started the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) with Singapore.
“We are also discussing the VTL with Indonesia and we are supposed to go to Thailand, however, their cases increased, thus, we will temporary suspend the movement to this country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said that the government will also consider the relaxation of SOP once the booster dose process is completed.
Nevertheless, it would depend on the advice given by the MOH.
He added, if the government is too rigid, it would affect the tourism industry.
“At the moment, the tourism industry is not operational yet. Although we are open for domestic tourism, however, we are still not open for international tourists.
“The wages subsidy by the government is still given to the tourism industry players.
“Therefore, although we have given the booster to the people, perhaps we can relax the SOP, however, the MOH needs to give its opinion in this,” he said. -MalaysiaGazette
