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KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has extended its ongoing partial lockdown to combat Covid-19 infections for another two weeks in three key states and the federal capital, Kuala Lumpur, while easing restrictions in the rest of the country.
Chief Security Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Tuesday (February 16) that the Movement Control Order (MCO), which was scheduled to end on Thursday, will run until March 4 in Selangor, Johor, Penang. and Kuala Lumpur, the four countries of the country. larger economies.
The rest of Malaysia would come under the mid-level Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO), while the smaller state Perlis would come under the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).
Ismail Sabri said that specific protocols on the different levels of lockdown will be published on Thursday.
Malaysia’s second iteration of the MCO, rolled out on January 13, was a much more relaxed version of the first order rolled out for three months last year during the second wave of Covid-19 infections.
While the first MCO experienced a near total lockdown, except for essential services, the current MCO, called MCO 2.0, saw different sectors of the economy progressively reopen.
Under MCO 2.0, restaurants were allowed to serve a limited number of customers who dine on the premises, while night markets and non-contact sports activities could continue.
Ismail Sabri said the National Security Council made the latest decision after assessing a downward trend in daily cases over the past week across the country. But he noted that the number remains high in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang.
The three states and the federal capital together are home to more than 13 million people, more than a third of the 32 million people in Malaysia.
MCO 2.0 initially showed no results, as the number of cases in the country continued to increase that began after the New Year, reaching an all-time high of 5,728 per day on January 30.
However, that number has shown signs of decreasing in the last week.
Malaysia recorded 2,176 cases on Monday (February 15), the lowest daily case count since January 11. The Health Ministry also said that the infectivity rate had fallen below 1.0, although it was still somewhat far from the target of a rate of 0.6 and below.
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