THE second quarter of the year is a more realistic timeline for the country to reopen to international travellers, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said the ministry has also been given two weeks to come up with guidelines for the reopening.

“I expect the reopening to take place in the second quarter of the year. This is a realistic timeline,” he said at a press conference in Batu Pahat, Johor, which was carried live by Astro Awani.

“Early in the second quarter of the year, but the exact date will be decided later.”  

Khairy said once the guidelines are ready, they will be presented to several committees for perusal and then to the cabinet.

“The prime minister has instructed me to come up with a set of guidelines for the reopening of the borders. He has given the ministry two weeks to do that,” he said. 

“This does not mean that the borders will reopen in two weeks, it’s just for us to prepare the guidelines. 

“We are now working on them and the decision will be made at the cabinet level.

“Once they are ready, I will present them to the Special Committee on Pandemic Management and the Covid-19 Quartet Ministerial Meeting before they are presented to the cabinet.”

The decision on the reopening cannot be made at the ministry level as it involves policy, he said. 

“It involves policy. It has to go through several stages before it can be announced,” he said. 

Yesterday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said a decision on whether to reopen the borders must be looked into carefully as the government has received a lot of feedback on the matter, especially concerning health guidelines due to Covid-19 transmission concerns. 

“We would like to open up the economy, especially since tourism income is huge and will help the country,” he said.

“But at the same time, we need to protect the people… so a balance is what the ministry seeks. 

“The Health Ministry has been given two to three weeks to present (its proposals) for the cabinet to decide… whether to fully reopen the borders or restrict them to selected countries.”

Last week, National Recovery Council chairman Muhyiddin Yassin said the borders can be fully reopened as early as March 1, while quarantine requirements may be scrapped. 

The former prime minister said the economy could not fully recover while the country’s borders remained closed.  

He said the council would recommend to Putrajaya that Malaysia open its borders in stages for the resumption of economic activities. 

The Malaysian borders have been closed to international travellers since March 2020 when the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. 

Exceptions are, however, made for permanent residents, spouses, work travel and students, among others. – February 19, 2022.