KUALA LUMPUR – The government has decided to implement a nationwide total lockdown by fully closing the social and economic sectors for a period of 14 days from 1 until 14 June 2021.
Throughout the period, all sectors will not be allowed to operate, with the exception of essential economic and service sectors listed by the National Security Council (MKN).
In a statement just now, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that the decision was made during a special MKN sitting on Covid-19 Management chaired by the Prime Minister this evening, after taking into factor of the current daily Covid-19 infections in Malaysia that has exceeded 8,000 cases and also 70,000 active cases in the country.
As of today, 2,552 Covid-19 patients have died from the disease and the number is increasing each day.
According to PMO, the emergence of new and more aggressive variants with high and fast infection rate also influenced the decision today.
With the sudden surge of daily infections, the capacity of the hospitals nationwide to treat Covid-19 patients is getting very limited.
If the first phase of the lockdown can successfully reduce the daily Covid-19 cases, the government will implement the second phase of lockdown, by allowing the reopening of several other economic sectors that do not involve mass assembly and are able to adhere to physical distancing.
The second phase of lockdown will be implemented for four weeks after the first phase ended.
After the end of Phase Two, we will enter the Third Phase, that is, the current Movement Control Order (MCO), where social activities will not be allowed and almost all economic sectors will be allowed to operate, subjected to strict SOP and limited presence at the work place.
However, the decision to move from one phase to another will be subjected to the risk assessment by the Ministry of Health (MOH).
According to the statement, assessment will be made based on the development of the daily cases and the capacity of hospitals nationwide to treat Covid-19 patients.
The government will ensure that the public health system in the country will go on with various support and assistance given to the MOH to increase the capacity of the hospitals throughout the country.
The government will also increase the amount of vaccination several weeks from now in its effort to create herd community in the country.
Following the government’s decision to implement the full closure on the economic and social sectors, the Ministry of Finance will entail assistance packages for the people and affected economic sectors.
The announcement on the aids will be announced soon. –MalaysiaGazette
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