MALAYSIA will be totally locked down from June 1 to June 14, 2021, except for essential economic and services sectors, to combat the rising Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced tonight. 

The total lockdown, similar to the first imposed in March 2020, came as Covid-19 cases rose to 8,290 today, after three days of 7,000 cases and almost a week of 60 deaths daily. 

The National Security Council will issue a list of essential economic and services sectors soon, the prime minister said.

The prime minister said the decision was taken after Malaysia continues to record high number of daily infections and the emergence of new variants that are more aggressive.

“The government will reopen more economic sectors during the second phase of the total lockdown if the number of new infections fall during this first phase of total lockdown.

“The second phase will be over four weeks after the first phase,” the prime minister said.

He said once the second phase is over, the country will return to the current movement control order stage where social activities will still be prohibited but almost all the economic sectors will be reopened.

The government will decide on the various stages based on the risk assessment by the Ministry of Health.

“The government will improve the capacity of hospitals and ramp up the national vaccination programme in the coming weeks.

“The Ministry of Finance will look into aid assistance for affected Malaysians and economic sectors. An announcement on this will be made soon.”

Malaysia’s active cases currently stand at 72,823. It also recorded 61 new deaths, taking the death toll to 2,552. – May 28, 2021.