The current economic and social restrictions under the third movement-control order (MCO 3.0) will be tightened further as the country battles to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said today.
The PMO statement released this evening came as the country waited for word if Putrajaya would enforce a total lockdown as the Covid-19 cases and deaths increased.
The decision was made at the National Security Council’s meeting chaired by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today after taking into account the Health Ministry’s presentation on the current Covid-19 situation, the capacity of the healthcare system in all states and the proposed measures to rein in the pandemic.
The meeting also discussed the effectiveness of MCO 3.0, which was enforced on May 12 for a period of four weeks.
“After taking the feedback into consideration, the meeting had unanimously decided to tighten the enforcement of the MCO by imposing stricter curbs on the economic and social sectors,” the PMO statement read.
“The meeting also included state governments to take into account the current situation in their respective states and to seek their views on efforts to contain the spread of the virus.”
The statement added that despite stringent standard operating procedure, including interstate and inter-district travel ban as well as restrictions on social, sports and recreational activities as well as face-to-face meetings, infections continued on an upward trend.
“Infections within the community continue to increase and the existence of new aggressive variants that are highly infectious has prolonged efforts to flatten the curve of infection,” it said.
The statement said more details of the tightening of the restrictions in the economic and social sectors will be announced by Senior Minister (Defence) Ismail Sabri Yaakob tomorrow. – TMI