Covid-19: What You Need to Know on Malaysia's Movement Restriction

As announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday, Malaysia will effectively be pausing all non-essential activities for two weeks from Wednesday, March 18 until March 31 to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Here's a quick summary on what you need to know about the government’s nationwide movement control order:


Image credits: Malay Mail

Here's a quick summary on what you need to know about the government’s nationwide movement control order:

1. When is the government’s order to restrict movement taking effect?
Wednesday, March 18, 2020 until Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

2. What will be temporarily closed or stopped?
Non-essential businesses and services, all religious places, all educational places.
This order covers the whole of Malaysia, with a ban on public gatherings including for any religious, sports, social or cultural events.

All places of worship and all business premises will have to close except for supermarkets, sundry goods stores, markets and other places selling daily necessities or things that people would need for their day-to-day lives. The government also announced separately on Monday that all activities at mosques and suraus will be suspended for 10 days until March 26.

All pre-schools, public and private schools including boarding schools, international schools, tahfiz centres, primary, secondary and pre-university institutions, all public and private universities and skills training institutes will also have to close for two weeks.

3. What will stay open?
Only essential services will continue to operate during the two-week period starting from tomorrow.
Water, electricity, telecommunications, postal, transportation, irrigation, oil and gas, fuel, lubricants, broadcast, financial, banking, health, pharmacies, fire and rescue services, prison services, ports, airports, security, defence, cleaning, sundry goods and food supply.

4. Travelling out banned
All Malaysians cannot travel abroad, while tourists and foreigners are not allowed to enter Malaysia.
The Malaysian government’s order to control movement says all Malaysians cannot travel abroad, with those returning from overseas to undergo health checks and self-quarantine for 14 days. Tourists and foreigners are not allowed to enter Malaysia during these two weeks.

5. Why do we need this two-week order?
In short, to curb the spread of Covid-19, which can be fatal in some cases.

The announcement of this order takes place as more than 160,000 persons tested positive in 135 countries with more than 6,400 of these now dead. Malaysia has 511 confirmed cases, with 42 fully recovered and zero fatalities so far.

The PM acknowledged that Malaysians may be inconvenienced and face difficulties because of this two-week order, but said the government must implement this and cannot afford to wait longer until the situation worsens.

6. Keep calm
The government says there is no need to panic.
Why? Because there will be enough supplies, as the prime minister has assured. He assured on Monday that there will be sufficient supplies of food, daily necessities and healthcare goods including face masks, saying that the government will always monitor the supply levels in the market throughout these two weeks.

“Buy what is necessary, stop what is unnecessary, and we will ensure that food is available for you at all times,” he said earlier in response to Malaysians’ panic buying, assuring that there was no need to rush and no need to “worry so much”.

This article was originally published on Today Online. Source: Malay Mail

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