[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: Interstate travel may be allowed before March 18 if the number of new Covid-19 cases shows a downward trend, says Datuk Seri Dr. Adham Baba (Photo).
The health minister said the ministry would present a recommendation to the government, but that it would not be a blanket reopening of state borders across the board.
He said domestic travel restrictions have also been imposed in other countries such as Australia, China, South Korea and Singapore.
“So we have decided that there will be no interstate travel until March 18,” he said, adding that the decision would be reviewed from time to time.
“After March 18, we will see if the data has shown any improvement as we have managed to flatten the curve at the moment,” he told a news portal.
Dr. Adham said the government had learned from a year of enforcing the motion control order (MCO) and its various levels, such as enhanced, conditional, and recovery MCOs.
“We know that the restriction of interstate travel is one of the necessary measures to reduce the number of cases,” he said.
Tan Sri Chief Health Officer Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah previously said that the inter-state travel ban will likely continue until at least 70% of the population is vaccinated.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that interdistrict travel was allowed except in Sabah from Friday (March 5).
Dr Adham also said that the travel ban was the most stringent “maximum measure” enforced, but that the government intended to balance life and livelihoods.
“We will take steps to allow interstate travel based on certain issues. This is important. We will try to develop green bubbles to allow inter-state travel under the recovery OLS.
“We will make sure that if the public can comply with the SOP, it can continue. If they are using MySejahtera, they can discover and identify access points, ”he said.
The minister added that travelers should know if the areas they want to visit have been categorized as green, yellow, orange or red.
[ad_2]
