Muhyiddin said the plan, which is a strategy to transition out of the COVID-19 crisis, covers four phases and transition of the MCO phases in stages. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR (June 15): Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today unveiled the National Recovery Plan which is believed capable of bringing life back to normal by the end of this year, including reconvening Parliament in September or October.
He said the plan, which is a strategy to transition out of the COVID-19 crisis, covers four phases and transition of the Movement Control Order (MCO) phases in stages.
Each phase will be based on the data from three threshold indicators to move from one phase to the next, he said when announcing the plan over television this afternoon.
The first indicator is the situation of COVID-19 transmission in the community based on the number of daily cases of infection; the second indicator is the capacity of the public health system based on bed occupancy rate in intensive care units (ICU); and the third indicator is the level of protected population based on the percentage of completed vaccination.
Muhyiddin said the first phase (in June) began with the total lockdown, which is being implemented when the number of new cases is spiking, the public health system is at a critical level and the vaccination rate is low.
He said the government will consider the transition into the second phase (July-Aug) after the average daily tally drops to below 4,000 cases, the public health system is no longer critical, bed occupancy rate returns to a moderate level, and 10 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.
Under the second phase, economic activities will be opened in stages by allowing workers’ attendance of up to 80 per cent capacity of the premises, he said.
The Prime Minister said the government will continue taking the positive-list approach with only the listed sectors will be allowed to operate, while the others will remain closed.
He said, at the same time, sectors in the positive list from the first phase will also be expanded in the second phase with more sectors to be included, while social activities and interstate travel will remain disallowed.
Muhyiddin said activities allowed under the second phase would include manufacturing such as the production of cement to ensure continuity of permitted construction and retail trade such as the sale of electronic goods and computers to support those working from home.
However, he said, some manufacturing, construction, retail and service activities would remain unlisted and not operate, such as textile manufacturing and furniture outlets.
For the third phase (September – October), the Prime Minister said all economic activities would be allowed to operate except those posing high risk of COVID-19 infection.
He said this phase could be activated if Malaysia reached the threshold value of less than 2,000 COVID-19 cases per day, the public health system was at a manageable level with bed occupancy rate in the ICU at an adequate level and 40 per cent of the country’s population had received the second dose of the vaccine.
The threshold value is expected to be reached by the end of August at the earliest, he said. – Bernama
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