2020

Dear Friends of Malaysia,

Festive season is in the air! We would like to take this opportunity to wish a joyous and blessed Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all our Muslim friends. May peace and happiness be with all of you and your family even though interstate travel are still restricted during this Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

We at Tourism Malaysia would also like to wish happy upcoming Kaamatan and Gawai festival to our Malaysian Borneo friends. Pesta Kaamatan or Harvest Festival is celebrated by the Kadazandusun and Murut communities on May 30 and 31 in Sabah while the Dayak community in Sarawak celebrates Gawai which falls on June 1 and June 2.

While our shopping malls are started welcoming shoppers and offering great sales during this festive season, we hope that Malaysians will continue to adhere with the strict compliance of standard operating procedure (SOP) set out by our authorities.

Even though small gatherings of family member not exceeding 20 people is permitted, it is advisable not to organize any open house tradition as the public is also urged to avoid any crowded or closed spaces. However, we hope this will not dampen our spirit to celebrate these festive celebrations together despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

As usual, social distancing rule must be maintained besides practicing good hygiene and wearing face masks. Everyone should also keep their homes clean and wash all the utensils thoroughly after serving guests.

We know that our government efforts to curb COVID-19 infection will not be successful if anybody turn a blind eye to the SOP compliance especially during this festive season. In fact, there are many extra initiatives that have been rolled out by our state governments in order to ensure the safety and health of our people.

In Selangor, the government has introduced ‘SElangkah: Langkah Masuk dengan Selamat’, a visitor registration system for COVID-19 contact tracing using QR Code scanning in all government buildings, commercial and private premises in order to protect business operators, visitors as well as front line workers. The same goes to the introduction of  Penang Contact Tracer or PGCare application that is aimed to ease the SOP compliance by the eateries in Penang.

Meanwhile, Sarawak has also come up with Covid Trace app for COVID-19 contact tracing purpose in which the app can automatically detect the phone numbers of people within a circle of three metres around the hand phone user while Sabahtrace app is used by Sabah government agencies and businesses in keeping their customers information including name, telephone number and body temperature.

As of May 20, there is a continuous increase in the number of COVID-19 recoveries in Malaysia, totalling to 5,706 in which it represents 81.41% of the total positive cases and therefore let us believe we can overcome this together!