Malaysia’s full lockdown has helped flatten the country’s Covid-19 infection curve and helped it avoid a catastrophe, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.
The nation’s health care system can handle new cases, he said in a televised address on Tuesday, while announcing the national recovery plan.
Malaysia went into a nationwide lockdown June 1 after daily Covid cases crossed the 9,000 mark, placing the health-care system under tremendous pressure. The restrictions were extended Friday by two weeks to June 28. The country reported 5,419 new Covid cases on Tuesday.
The economy lost 1 billion ringgit a day during the lockdown as most businesses remain shut except for essential economic and services sectors, he said. Still, there’s “light at the end of the tunnel” as the pace of vaccination increases, Muhyiddin said.
The lockdown will be eased in phase when daily cases drop below 4,000, he said.
The government last month unveiled 40 billion ringgit (302 billion baht) in relief measures ahead of the lockdown, including 5 billion ringgit in direct fiscal injection.