Commentary And Analysis . . . There’s case for giving other subject matter experts, having alternative views, public hearing on the novel Corona virus brought by the pandemic in 2019 in the form of Covid-19 or Corona Virus Disease 2019 and, if it returns, the new pandemic.

American scientist and systems engineer Dr Shiva Ayyadurai, who admits being untouchable from India as human rights issue, finds no proof that the novel Corona virus exists. He implies there’s proof that the pandemic was created by the Swarm for maximising power, profit and control and incompetent government, being no wiser, made grave errors but learned nothing.

The Swarm has been explained by Dr Shiva in YouTube.

The related vata (transport), pitta (conversion) and kapha (storage) or combinations are explained in the following video.

Dr Shiva believes that the so-called pandemic, if AIDS was discounted, may be the ultimate immune system problem. He advocates strengthening the immune system by getting out in the sun everyday for at least few minutes and taking extremely high doses of certain vitamins, but only for limited time, lest extreme toxicity sets in and causes premature death by persisting.

The mask mandate and social distancing, based on this line of thinking, can only weaken the immune system. The elderly, an exception, may avoid premature death by complying with the mask mandate and social distancing. There are also other SOP (standard operating procedures) like hand washing, hand sanitisation and wearing glasses, and having bath and changing the clothes after returning from town.

New Malaysia Pandemic

The focus, said Dr Shiva, whether the pandemic returns or otherwise, must be on how the four-stage immune system works viz. exposure, infection, recovery and memories. The immune system retains the memories on the previous three stages and thereby protects against future infection.

The immune system, cautions Dr Shiva, loses memories as it ages. So, older people are at risk of getting re-infected and probably dying prematuredly especially if they have undetected underlying health and medical conditions.

Patently, everyone over 40 years old needs regular medical review for treatment, management and control of underlying health and medical issues especially degenerative conditions i.e. those caused by stress and aging. Degenerative conditions progressively get worse. There’s no cure. The medication that prolongs life may, in the end, kill the patient as toxicity levels from the treatment — it’s called side effects — increase.

Malaysia, and the world at large, can keep on the safe side on the so-called pandemic brought in late 2019 by the novel Corona virus. The country must avoid grave errors made by incompetent government — read Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri — on the pandemic before GE15 last November. Muhyiddin reads Mahiaddin in the birth certificate.

Intelligence cannot be measured by IQ tests. They merely tell us how good we are at doing them. Einstein, for example, never took IQ test. He credited day dreaming for the genius. Intelligence remains the ability for learning from mistakes. If there are no mistakes, there’s no learning, and no increase in intelligence. Mistakes can only happen if risks are taken.

Incompetent Government

It’s settled law that repeating the same mistakes all the time may be form of mental illness and/or form of insanity as there’s no learning.

Insanity is legal term, not medical term.

The court can refer allegedly errant party to the nearest medical centre for evaluation and institutionalise him or her for life for keeping the public from harm.

There’s consensus that Malaysia’s economy was badly affected by incompetent government imposing lockdown, movement control order (MCO), and virtually the vaccine mandate at the risk of being terminated at the workplace.

In fact, if shove comes after push, it’s the daily death rate that matters the most in public healthcare management. The cause of death may be inconclusive.

Contagion may be an issue with some conditions like Covid-19. The cases may increase exponentially and outnumber the number of beds available at public healthcare facilities.

In India for example, at the height of the pandemic, those with Covid-19 symptoms were simply given two cylinders of oxygen by government hospitals and chased away. Instead of being hospitalised, as it takes up bed space at the expense of other patients, Covid-19 patients were advised on taking viral medication and resting at home in quarantine for recovery.

In Malaysia, before the pandemic, 678 people died daily compared with 8K daily in US, 24K daily in India and 30K daily in China. The figures are in the public domain. Google: global mortality rates which tells the story on infant mortality, lifespan and premature death.

Five Known Respiratory Symptoms

The jury may no longer be out on so-called vaccine — mRNA — for the symptoms unleashed by the immune system in overreaction, petrified by the perceived aggressiveness of the novel Corona virus in the epithelial cells and lymph nodes.

The known symptoms, all involving the respiratory system, have been categorised as 1 to 5.

It’s about the mathematical directions on the behaviour of forces in nature — read the laws of physics which, on second thoughts, in fact don’t exist — and the universe. Mathematics, for what little it’s worth, does not exist. It’s invention.

1 . . . no symptoms.

2 . . . mild symptoms.

3 . . . pneumonia and breathing difficulties.

4 . . . oxygen support needed.

5 . . . ventilator support needed.

If there’s fibrosis, i.e. hardening of lung cells, the oxygen level drops. The patient risks being dubbed BID i.e. brought in dead. There can be fibrosis of the cardiac muscles too but brought by untreated high blood glucose levels.

PCR tests for the novel Corona virus may read false positive i.e. there’s infection but no virus present or false negative viz. no infection but virus present.

In fact, recovery from the common Flu six months ago can show up in PCR tests as positive for the novel Corona virus.

mRNA Vaccine No Vaccine

In hindsight, the emerging medical and scientific literature shows that the novel mRNA gene therapy for the symptoms, dubbed Covid-19, isn’t vaccine per se. Science has since conceded that it cannot fathom infection. That can only mean that it will never find the Holy Grail i.e. vaccine against infection.

Big Pharma claims that mRNA can moderate the symptoms — read Covid-19 — unleashed by the immune system.

The Hippocratic Oath, taken by all doctors, cautions: “First Do No Harm” or “Primum Non Nocere” in Latin.

We are our own best doctors based on personal experience, the experience of others, reading widely, and getting two or three medical opinion before making decisions on our body. Never let any doctor decide. It’s our body. The doctor isn’t God. In the US, Dr Shiva discovered, 60 per cent of deaths were caused by medical errors.

There are only three microorganisms in nature. They come in the form of virus, bacteria good and bad, and fungi.

Virus isn’t living thing since it has no nucleus and cannot live outside the host body except for four hours after which its fatty layer bursts and it’s no more. There’s nothing that can kill virus since it isn’t living thing but form of intelligence.

Antibiotics can kill bacteria. Good bacteria, if more, can kill bad bacteria.

Otherwise, the course of antibiotics if completed will kill all bacteria. If uncompleted, the bacterial infection will return in two weeks, stronger than ever, and resistant on the previous course of antibiotics. The antibiotics course, if completed, may be followed by bouts of diarrhoea and purging caused by food being considered “bad” and/or food poisoning. The doctor may prescribe pre-biotics and probiotics.

Traditional Remedies

Yoghurt and rasam, traditional remedies for the guts where the immune system begins, may help.

There are creams for fungus problems. Diabetics may attract fungus attacks. They lie in spores carried by the dust-laden air.

We know from scientific and medical literature that the human body of seven trillion cells hosts 380 trillion viruses, 60 trillion bacteria and some fungi.

The novel Corona virus has been listed in the family of Flu viruses. There’s no reason for virus harming the host body. In fact, life would not exist if not for the virus.

So, there’s widespread public suspicion that the novel Corona virus was deliberately engineered in a lab somewhere and dropped outside the test tube. The immune system perceives the virus as particularly aggressive. The immune system unleashes symptoms which overwhelm the respiratory system. — NMH

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TOKYO – As Japan opens its doors to visitors this week after more than two years of pandemic isolation, hopes for a tourism boom face a number of challenges, including shuttered stores and a shortage of hospitality workers.

Japan will reintroduce visa-free travel to dozens of countries beginning Tuesday, removing some of the world’s strictest border controls in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expects tourism to boost the economy and reap some benefits from the yen’s drop to a 24-year low.

Arata Sawa is among those hoping for a return of foreign tourists, who used to make up up to 90% of his traditional inn’s guests.

“I’m hoping and expecting a lot of foreigners to come to Japan, just like before COVID,” said Sawa, third-generation owner of Tokyo’s Sawanoya ryokan.

Visitors to Japan Reduced In Significant Numbers

So far in 2022, slightly more than 500,000 visitors have arrived in Japan, compared to a record 31.8 million in 2019.

The government had set a target of 40 million people for 2020, coinciding with the Summer Olympics, until both were derailed by the coronavirus.

Last week, Kishida stated that the government’s goal is to attract 5 trillion yen (RM160.08 billion) in annual tourist spending. 

However, that target may be too lofty for a sector that has weakened as a result of the pandemic. 

According to government data, hotel employment fell 22% between 2019 and 2021.

According to Nomura Research Institute economist Takahide Kiuchi, spending from overseas visitors will reach only 2.1 trillion yen by 2023 and will not exceed pre-COVID levels until 2025.

According to the Nikkei newspaper, Japan Airlines Co (9201.T) president Yuji Akasaka said last week that inbound bookings have tripled since the border easing announcement. 

Even so, he believes that international travel demand will not fully recover until around 2025.

A Ghost Town

Narita Airport, Japan’s biggest international airport some 70 kilometres from Tokyo, remains eerily quiet, with about half of its 260 shops and restaurants shuttered.

“It’s like half a ghost town,” said 70-year old Maria Satherley from New Zealand, gesturing at the Terminal 1 departure area.

Satherley, whose son lives in the northern island of Hokkaido, said she would like to return with her granddaughter this winter but probably won’t because the child is too young to be vaccinated, a prerequisite for tourists entering Japan.

“We’re just going to wait till next year,” she said.

Amina Collection Co has shut its three souvenir shops at Narita and is unlikely to reopen them until next spring, said president Sawato Shindo.

The company reallocated staff and supplies from the airport to other locations in its 120-shop chain around Japan as it refocused on domestic tourism during the pandemic.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a sudden return to the pre-pandemic situation,” Shindo said. “Restrictions are still pretty strict compared to other countries.”

Japan still strongly encourages that people wear masks indoors and refrain from loud talking. The Cabinet on Friday approved changing hotel regulations so that they can refuse guests who do not obey infection controls during an outbreak.

Many service workers found better working conditions and wages in other fields over the past two years, so luring them back may be difficult, said a consultant for tourism companies who asked not to be identified.

“The hospitality industry is very infamous for low wages, so if the government values tourism as a key industry, financial support or subsidies are probably needed,” he added.

The Japanese government is starting a domestic travel initiative this month that offers transportation and accommodation discounts, similar to its Go To Travel campaign in 2020 that was cut short following a surge in COVID infections.

A Tight Labour Market

Almost 73% of hotels nationwide said they were short of regular workers in August, up from about 27% a year earlier, according to market research firm Teikoku Databank.

In Kawaguchiko, a lake town at the foot of Mt. Fuji, inns had difficulty staffing before the pandemic amid Japan’s tight labour market and they anticipate a similar bottleneck now, said a trade group staffer who asked not to be identified.

That sentiment was echoed by Akihisa Inaba, general manager at the hot-spring resort Yokikan in Shizuoka, central Japan, who said short staffing during the summer meant workers had to forego time off.

“Naturally, the labour shortage will become more pronounced when inbound travel returns,” said Inaba. “So, I’m not so sure we can be overjoyed.”

Whether overseas visitors wear face masks and abide by other common infection controls in Japan is another concern. The strict border controls were broadly popular during most of the pandemic, and fears remain about the appearance of new viral variants.

“From the start of the pandemic until now, we’ve had just a few foreign guests,” said Tokyo innkeeper Sawa. “Pretty much all of them wore masks, but I’m really not sure whether the people who visit from here on will do the same.”

“My plan is to kindly ask them to wear a mask while inside the building,” he added. – Reuters

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“I have more difficulties than a daily wage labourer,” said Singaram Soosaiyamutthu, who moves around on the palms of his hands after an air strike in 2009 took both his legs and injured his left arm.

That was during the final stages of a 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam militant group (LTTE).

The current economic crisis is a second blow for Soosaiyamutthu’s northern coastal district of Mullaitivu, which was ravaged by the war’s final offensive and has a predominantly Tamil population.

Many residents work as day labourers to make ends meet, he says, but he cannot.

“If I go for daily wage labour, nobody will hire me, and it’s also not possible for us to go and work like this, is it?” he asked.

He worked as a fisherman before the economic crisis, Sri Lanka’s worst in seven decades, dried up fuel supplies, forcing him to turn instead to peanut farming to earn money.

“Even if we have to control our own hunger, we can’t tell our children, ‘Look kid, this is all there is to eat, now just go to bed,’ can we?” he said.

His family is among 6.2 million Sri Lankans estimated to be food insecure by a U.N. agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), as food inflation hit an eye-watering 93.7% last month.

Sri Lanka’s financial crisis is the result of economic mismanagement and the coronavirus pandemic, which destroyed its tourism sector, a key revenue earner.

For months the population of 22 million has struggled with power cuts, rampant inflation, a plummeting rupee and a shortage of foreign exchange reserves that made it difficult to pay for imports of food, fuel and medicine.

Mullaitivu is Sri Lanka’s second poorest district, with 58% of households living in poverty, a Save the Children survey showed in June, and it has the largest number of those saying they lost all their income due to the crisis, about a quarter.

Nationwide, 31% of adult respondents said that, like Soosaiyamutthu, they cut back their food intake to feed their children.

“With this economic crisis, they are being pushed from bad to worse,” said Soma Somanathan, the founder of a charity, Tears of Vanni, that helps people in the region.

“They are actually being pushed back to the stage where they were directly after the war,” added Somanathan, who is based in Sydney.

Sri Lanka is extending a welfare effort that covers 4 million homes to include those hit hardest by the crisis, said Neil Hapuhinne, secretary of the social empowerment ministry, and plans direct monthly cash transfers to 600,000 more people.

“The most deserving will be identified and helped,” Hapuhinne added, after 51.3 billion rupees (RM662.11 million) was disbursed to 3.2 million households this year.

A loan of RM907.00 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will also alleviate the food crisis, while the government has turned to the World Bank and U.N. agencies.

At dusk in Mullaitivu, Soosaiyamutthu dropped his spade at the end of the day. It will be two months before he can gauge the success of the peanut harvest.

“If prices went down, we wouldn’t struggle this much,” he said. “Now, even being 10% OK is a struggle. That’s how expensive things are.” – Reuters

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The city, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, which has lately experienced heatwaves, power outages, and an earthquake, was shut down on Sept. 1 after COVID cases were found, making it the largest Chinese metropolis to be shut down since Shanghai earlier this year.

Since then, Chengdu has generally reported less than 200 new illnesses each day, which is minor in comparison to epidemics in other regions of the world. Authorities reported on Thursday that it discovered 116 new cases on September 7 compared to 121 the day before.

The lockdown was supposed to be lifted on Wednesday, but officials stated late that day that the virus remained a threat in some places.

16 million of the city’s 21.2 million citizens are under lockdown.

Residents of areas under lockdown will be tested every day and those who test positive will be quarantined. Residents in areas deemed high-risk are not allowed out of their homes.

Chengdu is aiming for zero new community infections within a week, its COVID prevention and control command said in a statement.

A handful of districts were released from full lockdown but residents there still have to undergo mass testing on Friday and Sunday.

Residents in districts no longer under full lockdown are barred from going to other districts and are discouraged from leaving Chengdu for non-essential reasons.

The policies would be “dynamically adjusted according to the development of the epidemic”, the COVID prevention office said.

Party Congress

China has been battling to contain the highly transmissible Omicron variant, imposing various degrees of lockdowns to stop its spread. Shanghai was locked down in April and May. Other big cities that have endured lockdowns and restrictions include Xian and Shenzhen.

Japanese brokerage and investment bank Nomura said that as of Tuesday, 49 Chinese cities had various levels of lockdowns or control measures, with an estimated 291.7 million people affected, up from 161.3 million the previous week.

Those people accounted for 20.7% of China’s population and come from areas that contribute 24.5% of its gross domestic product, Nomura said.

Chinese stocks edged lower on Thursday, defying a rally in other Asian markets, as COVID clouded the economic outlook.

The flare-ups come in a year when President Xi Jinping is widely expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term as leader at a once-in-five-years congress of the ruling Communist Party in mid-October.

In the run-up to the congress and also to the week-long National Day holidays at the beginning of October, more and more cities have been urging residents to refrain from non-essential trips in view of the COVID outbreaks, which have been reported in every region and province in recent weeks.

Nationwide, China found 1,439 new infections on Wednesday, the National Health Commission said. There were no new fatalities, the same as a day earlier, keeping the overall death toll unchanged at 5,226. – Reuters

• New Malaysia Herald

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On Wednesday, Kim presided over a COVID meeting and ordered the lifting of maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May, while emphasising the importance of North Korea maintaining a “steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier.”

According to the official KCNA, North Korea dropped the mask-wearing obligation and other rules such as limiting the service time of commercial and public facilities in all areas except border regions as part of the transition to a “normal” anti-epidemic system from a “top-level” system.

The North recommended those experiencing respiratory symptoms should keep wearing masks, and urged people to maintain vigilance against “abnormal things” which Pyongyang has cited as the cause of infections.

The North has blamed its COVID outbreak on the “alien things” near its border with the South, with Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong vowing “deadly retaliation” for causing the outbreak.

North Korean defectors and activists in the South have for decades floated balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North, at times along with food, medicine, money and other items.

North Korea has never confirmed how many people caught COVID, apparently due to a lack of means to conduct widespread testing, only reporting the daily numbers of patients with fever. The tally rose to some 4.77 million, and North Korea registered no new such cases since late last month.

The North’s declaration on COVID comes despite no known vaccine programme. Instead, it says it relied on lockdowns, domestically produced medicines, and what Kim called the “advantageous Korean-style socialist system”.

Infectious disease experts have cast doubts on North Korea’s claims of progress, citing an absence of independent data. – Reuters

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Around 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations that protect against life-threatening diseases last year, as the knock-on effects of the pandemic continue to disrupt health care globally.

That is two million more children than in 2020, when Covid-19 caused lockdowns around the world and six million more than pre-pandemic in 2019, according to new figures released by Unicef and the World Health Organisation.

Unicef described the drop in vaccination coverage as the largest sustained backslide in childhood vaccination in a generation, taking coverage rates back to levels not seen since the early 2000s.

Many had hoped that 2021 would see some ground recovered after the first year of the pandemic, but the situation actually worsened, raising questions over catch-up efforts.

“I want to get across the urgency,” Unicef’s senior immunisation specialist, Niklas Danielsson told Reuters.

“This is a child health crisis.” The agency said that a focus on Covid-19 immunisation campaigns in 2021, as well as the economic slowdown and strain on healthcare systems, had stymied a quicker recovery for routine vaccinations.

Vaccine Coverage Drops

Coverage dropped in every region, the figures showed, which are estimated using data on the take-up of the three-dose diptheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) jab and include both children who get no jabs at all and those who miss on any of the three doses necessary for protection. Globally, coverage fell by five per cent to 81 per cent last year.

The number of “zero-dose” children, who did not receive any vaccinations, rose by 37% between 2019 and 2021, from 13 to 18 million children mostly in low and middle-income countries, the data showed.

For many diseases, more than 90% of children need to be vaccinated in order to prevent outbreaks. There have already been reports of rising cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in recent months, including a 400% rise in measles cases in Africa in 2022.

In 2021, 24.7 million children missed their first dose of measles vaccine, and a further 14.7 million did not get the essential second dose, the data showed. Coverage was 81%, the lowest since 2008.

The numbers are worked out using data from national health systems in 177 countries. – Reuters.

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SYDNEY ― Australia looks set to expand the rollout of the fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccines as it battles a steady rise in hospital admissions from the coronavirus fuelled by the highly transmissible new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

The new subvariants have now become the dominant coronavirus strains in several countries, with pandemic experts warning they could lead to more hospitalisations and deaths because they spread more quickly than other coronavirus variants, Reuters reported.

Nearly 3,800 people are currently in hospitals in Australia suffering from Covid, the biggest count since early February, according to official data when Australia endured its previous significant Omicron outbreak.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, warned it was experiencing a fresh wave of infections driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 variants. Meanwhile, Victoria said these have become the dominant strains in the state.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday flagged Australia “will inevitably follow” many other countries in expanding the eligibility of the fourth dose. It began administering a fourth shot to people above 65 in March.

People above 30 will be able to get a fourth vaccine dose soon, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said in a report citing two unidentified sources, with the country’s immunisation advisory group to formally recommend the change by today.

After largely containing the virus through tough border restrictions and snap lockdowns earlier in the pandemic, Australia began living with the virus late last year through a staggered easing of curbs after higher vaccinations.

Australia on Wednesday scrapped a rule that required international travellers to declare their Covid vaccination status, marking the end of another major restriction.

Australia, among the most heavily vaccinated countries against Covid, has so far administered two doses to 95 per cent of people above 16. More than 70 per cent have been given a third shot, official data showed.

This has helped Australia to restrict its Covid numbers. The total death toll rose above 10,000 on Sunday, but the rise has been far slower than in many other countries.

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HONG KONG ― Macau shut down a popular shopping mall adjacent to MGM China’s casino resort on the city’s main peninsula after several Covid-19 infections were found, as authorities raced to the biggest outbreak yet in the world’s biggest gambling hub.

According to Reuters, One Central shopping mall will be shut for one week, while more than a dozen other zones or buildings have also been ordered to close, authorities said.

Macau locked down one of the city’s most famous hotels, the Grand Lisboa on Tuesday (05 July), with more than 500 people inside.

Macau has reported more than 1,000 coronavirus cases since mid-June with more than 14,000 people in mandatory quarantine. The territory had largely been Covid-free since an outbreak in October 2021.

A shopping mall inside the Four Seasons hotel owned by Las Vegas Sands Macau unit Sands China 1928 was also requested to shut down this week after several cases were found.

The measures come as the government has stopped short of imposing a full lockdown, as seen in Chinese cities such as Shanghai. However, the city is effectively closed with most facilities shut and restaurants only providing takeaway.

The more than 600,000 residents in the former Portuguese colony have been asked to stay at home when possible and are required to take part in three citywide Covid-19 tests this week. People are also required to take rapid antigen tests in between.

Only Macau’s casinos have been allowed to stay open in a move to protect jobs, the government said. Macau gets more than 80 per cent of its tax revenues from the industry with most of the population employed directly or indirectly by the casino resorts.

Although casinos are physically open, there are few patrons and only a small number of staff, with many employees, asked to stay home to comply with the government’s request.

Macau adheres to China’s “zero-Covid” policy which aims to curb all outbreaks, at almost any price, running counter to a global trend of trying to co-exist with the virus.

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KUALA LUMPUR – A total of 868,859 children aged five to 11 or 24.5 per cent of the child population in the country, have been fully vaccinated under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) as of Monday (02 May).

Based on the CovidNow website, a total of 1,536,766 children, or 43.3 per cent of the group, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Bernama reported.

For adolescents aged 12 to 17, a total of 2,894,533 individuals or 93 per cent of the group have completed the vaccination, while 2,992,178 individuals or 96.1 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

As for the adult population, a total of 16,035,520 individuals or 68.2 per cent of the group have received the booster dose, while 22,967,185 individuals or 97.6 per cent have received both doses of the vaccine and 23,243,448 (98.8 per cent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

On Monday, a total of 12,380 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were administered, with 1,847 as the first dose, 10,015 as the second dose and 518 as booster dose, bringing the cumulative number of vaccines doses dispensed under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) to 70,325,128.

Meanwhile, according to the Health Ministry’s GitHub portal, five deaths due to COVID-19 were reported yesterday, with three of the cases reported in Selangor, while Sarawak and Perak recorded one case each.

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Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia will fully reopen its borders to receive international tourists who are fully vaccinated effective 01 April, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced today.

Ismail Sabri said the decision was made following careful deliberation in various health and safety aspects, which include the progress of the national vaccination programme and the country’s economy and the outcome of risk management measures implemented by the authorities.

“Travellers who have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine are no longer required to undergo quarantine. They are only required to be tested two days prior to travel and within 24 hours upon arrival in Malaysia.

“For countries that have yet to fully reopen their borders, travel arrangements through Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) would be implemented,” Ismail said.

He also said international travellers will no longer be required to apply for MyTravelPass which would be abolished.

Thailand and the Philippines have allowed foreign tourists to return starting last month in a bid to create opportunities for tourism players to recoup their losses due to the pandemic.

Malaysia shut its international borders for about two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the same note, Ismail Sabri also announced restrictions on operating hours for business outlets have been lifted and allowed to operate according to business licenses.

“Under the transitional phase, we are still required to wear face masks in public places and existing SOP including MySejahtera app check-in at premises would still be enforced,” he said.

Malaysia, which is one of the countries with the most vaccinated population, has begun implementing the VTL with Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia as part of efforts to boost the hospitality and economic sectors. – New Malaysia Herald

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