Economic, social sectors to be further tightened

 

Although many people rushed to shop today expecting a full lockdown, the government has only announced a tightening of restrictions.

PETALING JAYA: The government has decided to tighten restrictions for economic and social sectors during the nationwide movement control order (MCO 3.0), the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said today.

However, the PMO said more details on the restrictions will be announced by senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob at a press conference tomorrow.

It said the National Security Council (MKN) meeting on the Covid-19 situation today discussed the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases of late, the spread of infections in the community and the more aggressive variants that were present.

“Following the discussions at the MKN meeting today, the meeting unanimously agreed to tighten the implementation of MCO 3.0,” it said in a statement today.

It also said every state government was involved in the discussions at the meeting.

The nation had been holding its breath after it was reported that the MKN meeting would decide on whether or not to impose a full lockdown, similar to the MCO first imposed in March last year.

Business groups had warned that a complete lockdown would be greatly detrimental to the economy, although the union representing civil servants said a full-blown MCO was needed to alleviate the burden on the public health system.

Earlier today, FMT reported that the government was not likely to implement a full nationwide lockdown, with sources saying Putrajaya made this decision after listening to views from stakeholders.

Most industry representatives were against a total lockdown, which saw a near shutdown of all operations in the country except for essential services and industries.

However, one source said most were in favour of a much stricter SOP implementation and EMCOs based on localities, without any compromise. - FMT