Health ministry to submit proposal on SOPs for border reopening soon

The health ministry is expected to submit its proposal on the SOPs for the reopening of the country’s borders to the Cabinet soon.

International Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said the matter was being studied carefully with the health ministry closely monitoring the country’s Covid-19 situation.

He said as Covid-19 cases, especially those involving the Omicron variant, were still high, the decision to reopen international borders must be carefully studied.

“The health ministry is looking into it and will submit its proposal to the Cabinet very soon,” he told reporters after attending an event in Johor Bahru yesterday.

He said the National Recovery Council chaired by Muhyiddin Yassin had proposed that the government consider reopening Malaysia’s borders in view of the country’s excellent vaccination rate.

“According to the Nikkei Recovery Index report, Malaysia has one of the best recovery programmes, with everything running smoothly.

“And so we feel that with new and tighter SOPs, the government can consider this (reopening international borders),” he said.

He also said discussions on reopening Malaysia’s border with Singapore were centred on the Vaccinated Travel Lane with the permitted quota to be reviewed from time to time.

“We will look into whether we can increase the numbers as Malaysia and Singapore share important economic ties.

“From discussions with the Chamber of Commerce here, they have asked the government to review (restrictions) as business travel is important for Johor to regenerate its economy,” he added.