KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 2 — Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri said today the Ministry of Health (MoH) will advise the National Security Council (NSC) when state borders can be safely reopened.

He added that every decision made by the NSC is based on the MoH’s advice, based on its Covid-19 risk assessment.

"If cases drop to two digits, I’m very certain that MoH will advise the NSC accordingly. So, if there is a suggestion from them to open state borders, MoH will let us know.

"We will listen to their advice as always and make a decision based on the data that they have — so now we just keep hope and praying that the numbers will drop to two digits,” he said.

Earlier, Ismail announced that states under the movement control order (MCO) — them being Selangor, Johor, Penang and Kuala Lumpur — will return to the conditional MCO starting March 5.

Inter-district travel will be allowed in all states except Sabah from March 5.

He said this following the advice of MoH following a downward trend in Covid-19 infection rate — or R-nought — from 1.2 to 0.8.