[ UPDATE 20/7/2020 16:30 ]: The Prime Minister has warned Malaysians not to let their guard down. The government might make face masks mandatory at public spaces. More details here.
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Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will be addressing the nation this afternoon. He will be providing an update on the current recovery movement control order (RMCO) which is scheduled to end on the 31st of August 2020.
The PM’s announcement will be streamed live at 4pm today (20th July) across multiple platforms including RTM, Bernama TV, TV3 and Astro Awani. With 42 days remaining, it is unlikely that the Prime Minister will announce an extension for the MCO at this point.
Under the RMCO, a significant number of restrictions have been lifted including domestic travel. Malaysians can travel interstate while domestic tourism is being promoted to boost the economy. On top of that, schools and more business sectors including barbers and hair salon are permitted to reopen.
Last week, both Malaysia and Singapore have announced that the borders between the two nations will reopen for selected residents and for essential trips by 10th August. The Malaysian government is looking into opening international borders to 6 green countries which also includes Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. However, the move will be decided carefully and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba had said that reopening borders will be the last thing to be implemented by the government in its war against COVID-19. This was because there’s still a significant number of new cases that are imported into the country.
Although Malaysia has been reporting fewer cases during the RMCO despite the lifting of restrictions, there are several new clusters detected in the past week. Yesterday, there were 15 new COVID-19 cases reported which consists of 11 local transmissions. At the moment, there are 8,779 confirmed cases and a total of 123 deaths reported as of yesterday. There are 103 active cases remaining with 2 patients in ICU and 1 require respiratory support.
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