Malaysia extends COVID lockdown in key cities

MALAYSIA’S coronavirus vaccinations will start on February 26, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Tuesday.

“I myself will receive the vaccine along with front line officers,” Muhyiddin said.

Front line health-care workers will be the first to be get the jab, according to the government’s plan, with “high risk” groups’ turn due to come in April.

The government said that a second pandemic-related lockdown will be extended in Kuala Lumpur, the biggest city, and in the key economic centres of Johor, which borders Singapore, Selangor, close to Kuala Lumpur, and Penang, an electronics manufacturing hub in the north.

“Cases are still high for certain states,” Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Tuesday.

The lockdown, or “movement control order,” requires people to stay at home unless for work or other “essential” purposes. Imposed on most of the country last month after a surge in coronavirus case numbers in late 2020, the curbs were due to run until February 1 . Other regions of the country will revert to less onerous restrictions after Thursday.

The Health Ministry reported eight new virus-related deaths on Tuesday, taking the total to 9 .

The ministry announced 2,720 new virus cases and over 5,700 new recoveries, meaning the country now has around 45,000 active cases out of a total of almost 270,000 reported since the first over one year ago.

A nationwide state of emergency was also declared last month and is due to run until August, prompting a legal challenge by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim over the declaration’s suspension of parliament.

The ministry announced 2,720 new virus cases and over 5,700 new recoveries, meaning the country now has around 45,000 active cases out of a total of almost 270,000 reported since the first over one year ago