Khairy: PM did not say next phase of recovery will begin on June 28

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Malaysians should not wrongly assume that the country will be shifting in the second phase of recovery from Covid-19 after Monday, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He emphasised that there was never a “target” date mentioned when Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the National Recovery Plan previously, but many appeared to have made conjectures based on the extension of the current movement control order (MCO) to June 28.

“There was no target to move from phase one to two at the end of June. The assumption was because that’s the end of the extension of the MCO.

“But when the prime minister announced the National Recovery Plan, he didn’t say June 28 from phase one to two. He said sometime in July, and at least my target, which is 10 per cent full vaccination, it’s middle of July, so that is in line with what he announced.

“The assumption that it is June 28 is because that is when the current MCO ends, but the announcement of the National Recovery Plan overrides that,” Khairy said.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today said that the country is expected to hit a 10 per cent national vaccination rate by mid-July.

He said that the shift from the first to the second phase of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme should happen at the end of this month, but added that this was not mentioned in the official announcement.

On Tuesday, Muhyiddin said that 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.

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.

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.