PM raises possibility that state-wide MCO will come to an end

 

Putrajaya plans to move away from imposing state-wide movement control orders (MCO) to focus on specific localities, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today.

This was to reduce the negative impact of movement restrictions on the economy.

“The government will carry out more targeted Covid-19 control strategies that are based on science and data to reduce the negative impact on the country’s economy.

“Taking into account the implementation of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (Pick), the government may no longer need to impose large-scale MCOs that involve the entire country or state.

“Instead, movement control will only be imposed based on locality and focused on the relevant clusters,” he said.

The MCO was first introduced on March 18 last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then, the government has tweaked the restrictions and rolled out different iterations of the MCO in response to infection numbers.

As of right now, five states and one federal territory are under conditional MCO (Selangor, Johor, Penang, Kelantan, Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur).

Six other states and two federal territories are under recovery MCO (Perlis, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Labuan and Putrajaya).

The Pick began three weeks ago on Feb 24.

As of March 16, 346,508 people have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Pemerkasa stimulus package

Muhyiddin said this as part of his speech unveiling Perikatan Nasional’s latest stimulus package dubbed “Pemerkasa” - Program Strategik Memperkasa Rakyat dan Ekonomi.

The package included a list of incentives worth a total of RM20 billion, of which RM11 billion constituted direct fiscal injection.

The prime minister hoped that Pemerkasa would ease the rakyat’s burden, incentivise trade and strengthen economic growth.

“As a caring government, the PN government will always listen and care about the people’s plight.

“God-willing, we will always bear this duty in a responsible and sincere manner for the people and country,” he said.   - Mkini