CINEMAS and theatre performances are among activities in the creative arts sector that can reopen from September 9, but only to patrons fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

Strict conditions such as social distancing measures, limits on crowd capacity, and vaccination rates apply.

“These loosening of restrictions for the creative arts sector is only for the fully vaccinated and subject to the space available in the premises.

“It will be applicable for states which are in phase 1 and which have achieved 80% vaccination of their adult population,” he said in a statement this evening. 

As of September 6, territories and states with a more than 80% fully vaccinated adult population are the Klang Valley (97%), Labuan (95.4%), Sarawak (87.7%) and Negri Sembilan (83.4%).

Audiences in cinemas are only limited to 50% capacity, whereas for theatre performances, musicals and comedy shows, only 30% audience capacity is allowed.

Other activities in the creative arts industry that will be allowed to reopen businesses to fully inoculated individuals from September 9 onwards are as follows:
•    Filming and live broadcasts of creative works
•    Filming and live broadcast of infomercials and entertainment to a 30% audience capacity 
•    Filming inside and outside studios 
•    Indoor busking by individuals who are fully vaccinated
•    Lounge performances in hotels 
•    Art exhibitions in halls, museums and galleries, where only fully vaccinated visitors are allowed and up to 30% capacity of the premises. Viewing must also be arranged by pre-registration.

Individuals are considered fully vaccinated against Covid-19 14 days after receiving their second dose in the case of double-dose vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

In the case of single-dose vaccines like CanSino and Johnson and Johnson, individuals are considered fully immunised against Covid-19 28 days after receiving their jab.

Ismail said the relaxed standard operating procedure, which were discussed by the Special Committee on Covid-19 Pandemic Management on September 2, seek to help more than a million people working in the arts industry, and some 19,000 companies in the sector, which contributed 2% or RM29 billion to the country’s gross domestic product in 2019.

“I urge all parties involved in the re-opening of this sector to always abide by the rules and procedures… as the country moves towards the endemic phase by the end of October,” the prime minister said. – September 7, 2021.