TANGKAK, June 22 — The government will look at various factors, including the actual Covid-19 situation, before deciding if the country can move towards the second phase of the National Recovery Plan, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.

He said the actual situation is constantly changing even though the government has set targets and set threshold values such as duration, rates and number of cases including the capacity of bed use in the intensive care unit (ICU).

"We have to understand that the situation is constantly changing.

"With that, we can make minor adjustments on the plan and this will later be decided at the National Security Council (NSC) meeting to assess the situation,” said Muhyiddin during his visit to the Dewan Muafakat Bukit Gambir vaccination centre (PPV) in Bukit Gambir here today.

He was responding to the government’s plan to enter the next phase of the National Recovery Plan before the movement control order (MCO) ends on June 28 despite the country still registering more than 4,000 new Covid-19 positive cases daily.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Pagoh MP and Gambir assemblyman, said the government is constantly keeping an eye on things through the Health Ministry where intervention methods could be used.

He explained that the current data for daily cases is still considered a little high from the government’s under-4,000 benchmark.

"Today we registered 4,743 cases. So it is not far from the target,” he said, adding that intervention to control the situation alone is not enough without the involvement of the people to comply with standard operating procedures (SOP).

Muhyiddin also said the government is looking into speeding up the vaccination process to better manage the situation and reduction of positive cases will be even faster.

He said the country can then move to the second phase provided the number of positive cases goes down.

"Due to that we will not make any announcements yet. We will give space for another two or three days before deciding if we want to continue or we will move [to the next phase],” said Muhyiddin.

The second phase of the National Recovery Plan, to be implemented after the country has achieved the threshold values set, will still represent a stringent MCO, with social activities being barred and movement curbs enforced like in the first phase.

The threshold indicators set by the government before the country could transition to the second phase include average daily Covid-19 cases dropping below 4,000, the ICU usage no longer being at a critical level, and 10 per cent of the country’s population having received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.