Interstate Travel Could Reopen As Soon As March 18

Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor will from today transition into the CMCO joining Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak and Perak which remains under the CMCO. Malacca, Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Putrajaya, and Labuan will move into the RMCO from today whilst Perlis remains in the RMCO.

For states under the CMCO and RMCO interdistrict travel is permitted but not interstate. 

Sabah however will only allow interdistrict travel within designated zones.

According to Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, Minister of Health, that might change as early as March 18 if the number of COVID-19 cases drops to manageable levels. 

He further added that his ministry would make this recommendation to the government but don't expect a blanket reopening just yet. This is in order to prevent a recurrence of a spike in COVID-19 infections, similar to what happened last year when state borders were reopened. 

“We learnt for a year from the movement control order, enforced movement control order, the conditional movement control order and the recovery movement control order.

“So we know that interstate travel restriction is one of the measures needed to reduce case numbers,” he told Malay Mail in an interview yesterday.

Domestic travels bans have also been undertaken in other countries like Australia, China, South Korea and Singapore. 

“So we have decided that there will be no interstate travelling until March 18. After March 18, we will see if the data have shown improvement, as we have already succeeded in bringing down the curve at the moment,” he said.

“We will take measures to allow interstate travel based on certain matters and this is important. Secondly, we will ensure that if the public can abide by the SOPs, carry on. Meaning we can allow. Thirdly, if they are using MySejahtera, they can know and identify hotspots. Travellers must be aware of the health status of the areas (green, yellow, red or orange zones) they want to visit.” Adham added.

He further explained that the government is treading cautiously this time and looking to allow “green bubbles” for travel between states under RMCO.

Malaysia has been on a downward trend of below 2,000 COVID-19 cases a day over the past week except for a spike to 2,063 new infections yesterday.