Current movement restrictions to carry on into July

PETALING JAYA: Don't call the current Covid-19 restrictions the Movement Control Order 3.0 (MCO 3) anymore. Call it phase one of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), says the Government today.

So this phase one will be extended into July, with the Government saying it could last two weeks.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said phase one had to be extended as the number of Covid-19 infections in the country has not dropped below the threshold of 4,000 cases required to move to the next phase.

"Now they say the movement control order (MCO) is about to end. I want to say that from now on, we don't call it MCO, but we say we are in a particular phase and now we are in phase one (of NRP) until July, maybe the middle of the month or so.

"It is wrong to say June 28 is the end of the MCO.

"I want to say we are still in the first phase of NRP, and this will continue until the threshold value of below 4,000 cases is reached, cases in the intensive care unit have dropped from the critical level and vaccinations have increased," he told reporters after visiting the vaccination centre at the Sunway Pyramid Convention here today.

Muhyiddin added that phase one was to test the country's resilience so that it could go through all the NRP phases smoothly.

On June 15, Muhyiddin announced the NRP, which has four phases that will transition in stages.

To enable the transition to phase two, the average daily cases of Covid-19 should drop below 4,000, the public health system should be out of critical stage including the rate of bed use in ICUs returning to moderate levels, and 10% of the population should have received two doses of vaccine jabs.

For phase three, it will be implemented if, among others, the average daily cases of Covid-19 drop to below 2,000, whereby the threshold is expected to be reached as early as the end of August, while the transition to phase four is expected to be achieved as early as the end of October 2021.

On the spread of Covid-19 infections in Selangor, Muhyiddin said the government was paying special attention to the state as the daily number of cases was above 2,000.

He said the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) imposed in any area in the state would be enforced more strictly.

"Why so? Because there are many cases in Selangor whether at work, in residential areas or communities. If you want to reduce the rate, attention should be paid to these areas (under EMCO).

"Maybe we will take another follow-up step so that overall case numbers across the country continue to go down, but what is important is the cooperation of all. The public needs to adhere to standard operating procedures (SOP)," he said.