KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — The federal government today announced a relaxation to its 10km limit nationwide even as it kept the ban against travel across state lines under the movement control order (MCO). 

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakub said the relaxation is effective today, even though the MCO is only set to expire this Thursday for several states.  

He said the government decided to loosen the travel restrictions as many economic sectors have since been allowed to reopen.

"As for roadblocks, these are actions the police will take. They will decide which areas need roadblocks and which areas do not. 

"However, I think there will still be roadblocks at the state borders,” he said in a press conference today.

He said interstate travel is still banned to prevent Covid-19 infections from spreading from outside areas marked as red zones.

Ismail Sabri said the government was exercising caution as it does not want a repeat of new travel-related clusters that formed last December when it eased up on travel.

"Based on reports from the Ministry of Health the last time we relaxed the interstate travel ban, 11 or 12 clusters emerged nationwide from travellers moving around the country.

"Like Kelantan, it was a green zone. Then people went holidaying and balik kampung or travelling and suddenly red zones started to emerge there. Same goes for Langkawi and then these states had to go under a movement control order.

"So based on the data and the previous experience we are still banning interstate and inter district travelling,” he said.

He explained that if inter-district travel is allowed in large states like Pahang, people from a red or yellow zone moving into a green zone can still cause an infection and change the district’s status to red.