KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has announced today that hair salons, barber shops and car wash outlets can now reopen for business, as the new movement control order dubbed MCO 2.0 gets extended by another two weeks from tomorrow.

However, the senior minister said in salons and barber shops the services offered must strictly be limited to only haircuts, with other services such as facials still strictly prohibited.

The defence minister said that salon and barber shop workers must also sanitise their equipment after servicing each customer.

Ismail Sabri said that the abovementioned services can operate until 10pm starting tomorrow.

"Barber shops and hair salons are allowed to operate until 10pm. Only hair cut service is allowed. Facial services and all others are still not allowed,” he said in a live broadcast this evening.

He said the government made the decision to allow the sector to reopen after conducting a risk assessment and saw that there had been no new clusters from this group.

He said operators must wear face shields while working, wear a fresh apron for every customer, wear new gloves for every customer and sanitise their scissors and combs with hot water in between each customer.

Ismail Sabri also said night markets, known colloquially as pasar malam, are also allowed to operate between 4pm and 10pm, even though they have been allowed to do so since last week after the government updated its MCO rules.

Today, he said the stalls must be set up following the one-metre distance rule from each other and clearly mark separate entrances and exits for customers.

He said that members from the Malaysian Volunteer Department (Rela) must also be present to ensure SOP compliance.

Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil had previously urged the government to allow night markets to reopen, pointing out that the traders were also economically struggling with the Covid-19 movement restriction orders.