All of Malaysia will be placed under a near lockdown for about a month to fight the coronavirus, but businesses will be allowed to continue to operate at reduced capacity, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced Monday.
The lockdown, starting Wednesday until June 7, took the nation by surprise because restrictions on movement are already in place in many parts of the country, including Kuala Lumpur and the richest state of Selangor.
Muhyiddin said drastic action was needed to battle a new aggressive outbreak before it turns into a national catastrophe. He said the emergence of new virus variants with higher infection rates, constraints on the public health system and public failure to observe health measures were worrying.
New coronavirus cases have exceeded 3,500 a day in recent weeks, pushing Malaysia’s total tally up three-fold since January to over 444,000. Deaths have also surged to 1,700.
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