More restrictions eased for fully vaccinated in Phase One states, including dine-in - Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR: With more than 50 per cent of the country's adult population fully vaccinated as of yesterday, more restrictions in the social and economic sectors in Phase One states and onwards under the National Recovery Plan (PPN) have been eased from tomorrow, including dine-in activity for fully vaccinated individuals.

Caretaker Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the matter was decided at the Special National Security Council (MKN) meeting which he chaired today to consider proposals by the MKN Special Technical Committee to ease more restrictions, especially for Phase One states.

Besides this, he said non-contact outdoor sports, recreational and leisure activities will now also be allowed but confined to only within the same district.

"It is must be clarified that individuals will only be recognised as fully vaccinated after they have met the following criteria, namely for vaccines that require two doses (for example, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac), the individual must have passed 14 days from their second dose vaccination date.

The MKN special meeting today was attended by Public Service Department director-general Tan Sri Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, National Security Council (MKN) director-general (Security), Datuk Rodzi Md Saad, Immigration director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud, ministry secretaries-general and senior officials.

Muhyiddin said the decisions were made today after the rate of full vaccinated individuals among the adult population, which exceeded 50 percent, showed positive developments and achieved earlier than the previous Aug 31 target.

"Besides that, the meeting also took note of the positive early developments from the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program (PICK) in several states namely Labuan, Sarawak, Negeri Sembilan and the Klang Valley states (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya).

"Data collected by the MOH shows that so far, all the states mentioned have started to show a decrease in the number of cases for categories three to five after full vaccination for the adult population (18 years and above) had exceeded 40 percent," he said.

At the same time, Muhyiddin said data from the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) showed that the situation at hospital emergency departments in the Klang Valley had also improved, including a decrease in the average number of patients waiting to be placed in MOH hospital wards in the Klang Valley.

He said the situation was seen as in tandem with the current full vaccination rate of the adult population in the Klang Valley, which, at 73.8 percent, was very encouraging.

-- BERNAMA