2020

Dear Friends of Malaysia,

In Malaysia, we are currently observing the last week of Ramadan together with our Muslim brothers and sisters around the world. As many of us are increasing our prayers to make the most of the blessed month this year, we are fast approaching the much-anticipated Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

While this festival is usually accompanied with huge gatherings and big celebrations, this year will be different as we are urged to celebrate at our own homes as we adjust to the new normal. Even though we will not be able to enjoy it in the company of our loved ones and in big families, this is important to keep them and our community safe, especially to prevent high risk groups from being infected with Covid-19.

In an effort to ensure the collection of data on Covid-19 is carried out more effectively and swiftly, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that a new system has been established. The system known as eCOVID is a collaboration between agencies namely the National Security Council of Malaysia, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission together with MOH.

MOH has also delivered the good news that the recovery rate in Malaysia has reached 80.8% as of 17 May 2020. Kudos to our frontliners as well as Malaysian who have abided by the rules during both MCO and CMCO!

Due to the declining trend of Covid-19 cases, we are able to slowly relax some rules to allow more sectors to restart the economy. Now, tourism agencies are allowed to operate their offices. However, only operations in terms of management are permitted such as preparing and managing the sales of travel packages for the future, once it is safe to start travelling again.

In line with the easing of restrictions, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has announced that the members of Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) who are stranded overseas may now return to Malaysia, provided that they comply with all the MCO's requirements. These include passing a health test before their departure and upon arrival to Malaysia and observing a 14-day quarantine at designated quarantine centres in Malaysia.

As the cases of Covid-19 in Malaysia continue to dwindle, we hope to see the day when we can finally put this behind us as we emerge into the new normal happily, and in better health.