Malaysia heads into another 2 week full lockdown

Malaysia is going back into a full lockdown for 2 weeks, starting this Tuesday. The Malaysian PM Muhyiddin Yassin announced the nationwide “total lockdown” as the country battles with a new surge of Covid-19.

The lockdown will run from June 1 – 14 and only essential and emergency services would remain in operation.

According to the prime ministers office, the Malaysian government will announce a package of subsidies to affected businesses and industry, but no details are available at this time.

New strains and hospitals under strain have forced the government to act but the 2 week circuit-breaker lockdown surprised opposition MPs and business groups.

Announcing the lockdown yesterday the Malaysian PM said the decision followed 4 straight days of rising infections. 549,514 people have now been infected in Malaysia since the start of the pandemic. 61 deaths were also announced o Friday.

“With the latest rise in daily cases showing a drastically upward trend, hospital capacity across the country to treat Covid-19 patients are becoming limited.”

“The government will ensure the public healthcare system will not collapse and a variety of support and help will be given to the Health Ministry.”

At this stage only 8.4% of the Malaysian population have been vaccinated with at least 1 dose.

But, even as the PM announced the 2 week lockdown, he also foreshadowed that the re-opening would then be staged based on the success of the 14 day full lockdown, over a period of 4 weeks.

Like Thailand, Malaysia remains under a state of emergency which was imposed in January to give the government additional powers to implement policies and fast-track reaction to the country’s localised crises.

World News

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Tim Newton

Tim joined The Thaiger as one of its first employees in 2018 as an English news writer/editor and then began to present The Thaiger's Daily news show in 2020, Thailand News Today (or TNT for short). He has lived in Thailand since 2011, having relocated from Australia.

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