No proposal to relax borders so long as COVID-19 not controlled - Dr Noor Hisham

The government will only consider relaxing our international borders if Malaysia has successfully controlled the spread of COVID-19 in the wake of the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).

Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the consideration of opening the border including for tourism would only be possible if COVID-19 cases in the country remained at a single-digit throughout the period.

"If we can control the transmission until August 31, this means we have succeeded.

"After that, we will identify the countries and the development of infection (COVID-19) in each of these countries before making any decision to loosen the country's borders," he told a media conference here on Monday.

However, Dr Noor Hisham said it was dependent on the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and that both countries had to agree.

He explained that the concept of green bubble can be introduced across only two countries from the selected countries and its implementation has certain criterion.

"Entering the recovery phase, we open up sectors in the country including economy, social and education.

"If we can control the transmission of COVID-19, we might consider relaxing border controls with countries with good records,” he added.