The Malaysian government said Tuesday that it will extend the movement control order in several areas till March 4 in order to control the spread of COVID-19.
Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who coordinates the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions, told a press briefing that restrictions were already in place in Kuala Lumpur, the adjacent Selangor state, Johor state and Penang state.
A conditional movement control order will be implemented in other parts of the country and some measures have been eased such as the lifting of a 10-km travel limit, but inter-state and inter-district travel remains banned.
Meanwhile, Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah told a separate press conference that 2,720 new COVID-19 cases have been reported, bringing the national total to 269,165.
No imported cases were reported with all new cases being local transmissions.
Another eight deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 983.
A total of 5,718 patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total cured and discharged to 224,053 or 83.2 percent of all cases.
Of the remaining 44,129 active cases, 253 are being held in intensive care units and 118 of those are in need of assisted breathing.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the country's national immunization drive would begin on Feb. 26, after the arrival of the first vaccine doses later this month.
"The comprehensive immunization program is to ensure herd immunity is achieved in the community to break the chain of COVID-19 infections and end the pandemic," he said in a speech at the launch of a vaccination handbook detailing how the program would be rolled out.
The vaccination will be conducted in three phases: phase 1 for frontliners covering some half million people, phase 2 for high-risk groups and phase 3 for all adults aged 18 and above with the whole exercise expected to be completed by February next year.
