MOH mulls keeping inter-district, interstate travel ban after MCO expires

 

The Health Ministry proposes that the ban on cross-state and cross-district travel remain in place.

This is to keep Covid-19 infectivity (Rt) low and to prevent cross-border infections.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba hinted that the ban could remain even after the movement control order (MCO) is lifted.

“The MCO will be in place until Feb 18. Today is only Feb 10, there are eight days left.

“We propose that interstate and interdistrict travel be maintained as it is now.

“We must continue to flatten the Covid-19 curve. We see signs that cases are going down even though we are testing a lot. The Rt has remained under 1.00,” he said during a broadcasted press conference today.

He had earlier told the media that the travel ban had successfully curbed inter-state Covid-19 infections.

As of yesterday (Feb 9), zero new inter-state cases were detected.

Between Dec 7 last year and Feb 8, Adham shared that interstate travel had resulted in 31 infection clusters.

Index cases had travelled from six areas (Selangor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Malacca and Sabah).

They later sparked cases in eight states and territories (Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak and Labuan).

These clusters resulted in a total of 4,376 cases. - Mkini