Interstate travel may be allowed if Covid-19 cases are low, says Dr Adham

PETALING JAYA: Interstate travel may be allowed by March 18 if the number of new Covid-19 cases is showing a downward trend, says Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba (pic).

The Health Minister said the ministry would put forward a recommendation to the government but it would not be a blanket reopening of state borders across the board.

He said domestic travel restrictions have also been imposed in other countries such as Australia, China, South Korea and Singapore.

“So we have decided that there will be no interstate travelling until March 18, ” he said, adding that the decision would be reviewed from time to time.

“After March 18, we will see if the data has shown any improvements as we have already succeeded in flattening the curve at the moment, ” he told a news portal.

Dr Adham said the government had learned from a year of imposing the movement control order (MCO) and its various levels such as the enhanced, conditional and recovery MCOs.

“We know that interstate travel restriction is one of the measures needed to reduce the number of cases, ” he said.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah previously said the interstate travel ban was likely to continue until at least 70% of the population was vaccinated.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that inter-district travel was allowed except in Sabah starting Friday (March 5).

Dr Adham also said the travel ban was the most stringent “maximum measure” to be imposed but the government intends to balance life and livelihoods.

“We will take measures to allow interstate travel based on certain matters. This is important. We will try to develop green bubbles to allow travel between states under the recovery MCO.

“We will ensure that if the public can abide by the SOP, they can carry on. If they are using MySejahtera, they can find out and identify hotspots, ” he said.

The minister added that travellers must be aware whether the areas they want to visit have been categorised as green, yellow, orange or red zones.