By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, April 10 — Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has today announced the two-week extension of the movement control order (MCO), which will be the third phase.
In a special broadcast today, Muhyiddin said the order period has been extended from April 15 to 28.
He said the extension is needed in order to give room to the healthcare frontliners in battling against Covid-19 while ensuring that the virus does not continue to spread within the community.
“This is in line with the recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which had urged global nations to not stop the control order too soon.
“We have seen how in several countries, the spread of the disease had spiked when the control order ended,” he said in the special address.
Muhyiddin said since the implementation of the MCO on March 18, the Covid-19 infection had been under control and in a stable condition, based on the projection presented by the Health Ministry.
He said with the measures enforced, the Covid-19 positive cases are at a controlled rate of 7 per cent, which is below the 10 per cent benchmark set by the WHO. The death rate is also relatively low at 1.6 per cent in comparison to the global rate of 5 per cent.
“However, we cannot take things for granted. The outbreak is still at an early stage and a continuous preventive and control measure has to be in place.
“Efforts to curb the infection from spreading must be tightened further to ensure the chain of infection is broken, which includes focusing on targetted groups that were identified as the source of the outbreak,” he said.
On March 25, Muhyiddin had announced the second phase of the order from April 1 to 14.
The MCO was first enforced from March 18 to 31.
