MCO 2.0 Extended Until Feb 18
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Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob today announced that the Government will extend the movement control order (MCO) for another two weeks.
The next phase of the MCO will expire on Feb 18. The MCO will not affect most areas in Sarawak except a few districts where MCO and enhanced MCO are imposed. Last month, the Government placed all states in Malaysia except Sarawak under MCO from Jan 22 until Feb 4 to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Ismail said that the Health Ministry confirmed that all MCO states' daily cases still show an upward trend as the positive rate in clusters between 20% and 40%. He also said that the sporadic spread within the community is high, involving both citizens and non-citizens.
The minister said that the special meeting took into account the risk evaluation and the Health Ministry's advice to extend MCO 2.0 across all states except Sarawak. He added that Sarawak would continue to be under conditional movement control order (CMCO) and interstate travel stays banned.
MCO 1.0
Almost all economic activities stopped operating when Malaysia was first placed under the MCO in March 2020. Only essential services such as food and beverage outlets and pharmacies were allowed to operate.
The lockdown reduced COVID-19 cases to single digits in the first half of 2020. Then, the Government placed the country under CMCO and recovery movement control order (RMCO) as localised restrictions were introduced in places with a spike in cases.
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MCO 2.0 is extended from Feb 4 to Feb 18.
MCO 2.0
The current MCO has allowed more economic sectors to continue operating, such as retailers and the automotive industry. Ismail Sabri noted the difference between the latest MCO and the previous MCO in today's press conference.
The minister maintained that the restrictions for MCO 2.0 would continue to be tightened to contain the number of COVID-19 cases. For example, the number of people allowed to enter supermarkets at any one time would be restricted to stop large gatherings of customers within proximity.
He said that the National Security Council would release a detailed list of new standard operating procedures soon.
No total lockdown
Last week, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said that Malaysia cannot afford another full lockdown as it would be "very detrimental" to the economy.
Since MCO 2.0 was enforced in January, Malaysia has continued to fight a sharp spike in infections and reported four-digit daily increases in COVID-19 cases. As of today, it reported a total of 222,628 COVID-19 cases, of which 47,847 are deemed active or infectious.
Last Sunday, Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah stated the sharp increase in the number of daily cases, surpassing 5,000 for three consecutive days, was because of the late reporting of cases to the authorities.
Source: Malaysia Kini
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