Sports, recreational activities in MCO areas temporarily suspended

The Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS), in a statement today, said the suspension included all sports and recreational activities in commercial premises or facilities as well as in public and open areas.

"The consideration and decision were made based on the risk assessment by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and also the challenges as well as current development for the sake of the public's health, in line with the desire to curb the spread of COVID-19, especially within communities," it said.

However, these sports and recreational premises or facilities can still carry out certain operations limited to management and maintenance only; quarantine-based centralised training programmes by the National Sports Council (NSC) and camp-based training by state sports councils.

Also allowed are quarantined-based centralised training programmes for Malaysia League (M-League) teams while the organisation of tournaments and friendly matches according to the sports bubble model is limited to the M-League competitions without the presence of fans.

At the same time, local athletes and officials are also allowed to compete in overseas tournaments with the support of the KBS and permission from the Immigration Department.

The KBS said it would always support efforts by the MOH to curb the spread of COVID-19 and flatten the curve.

"The risk assessment by the authorities, such as the MOH, will be done from time to time and permission for the sports and recreational sectors to operate again is the KBS' main commitment," it said.

The standard operating procedure (SOP) for the sports and recreational sectors in areas placed under the Conditional MCO (CMCO) and Recovery MCO (RMCO) remain the same.

Meanwhile, the public can obtain updated information regarding the SOP on the sports and recreational sectors for MCO areas on the MKN and KBS websites, which will be uploaded soon.