Meanwhile, based on the percentage of the population which has been fully vaccinated, Malaysia is ranked the third highest among Asean countries. — Bernama photo
KUCHING: The road to recovery is upon us as Malaysians are now allowed to travel overseas without having to apply for MyTravelPass from the Immigration Department.
Only those fully vaccinated are allowed to travel to other states and overseas. Nevertheless, a mandatory 14-day quarantine remains in force for travellers entering Malaysia.
These two announcements provide a significant boost to Malaysia’s tourism activities, commented AmInvestment Bank Bhd (AmInvestment Bank).
However, interstate travel remains prohibited in areas under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO). The PM stressed that measures such as physical distancing and wearing of mask is still enforced to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“After 229 days, Malaysia has achieved 90 per cent vaccination rate for adult population The government’s move to allow interstate travel follows the achievement of 90% fully vaccinated status among Malaysia’s adult population,” the research house said in its review yesterday.
“Recall that Malaysia’s vaccination programme started on February 2021 with 60 doses dispensed on the first day – 41 in Kuala Lumpur, 18 in Putrajaya and 1 in Sarawak. Since then, we have progressed well, hitting the daily vaccination peak of 579,774 on July 28, 2021.”
As of October 10, 90 per cent of Malaysian adults have been fully vaccinated in total with 45.65 million doses of vaccine successfully administered. Additionally, 65.2 per cent of the total population have been fully vaccinated.
This is a commendable achievement, AmInvestment Bank said, as it exceeds that of some developed nations such as the US and Australia where only 56.8 and 50.2 per cent of their respective total population have been fully vaccinated.
“Most Asean countries are adopting ‘living with Covid’ strategy,” it added. “We gather that Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei are moving towards “living with Covid” strategy instead of ‘zero Covid’ strategy favoured previously.
“For example, Indonesia has, on October 2, allowed 10,000 people to attend the opening ceremony of its maiden large-scale sports event. As for Singapore, the city state has announced on October 9 that it will allow quarantine-free travel into the country for eight more countries.”
Meanwhile, based on the percentage of the population which has been fully vaccinated, Malaysia is ranked the third highest among Asean countries. This paves the way for more economy activities to resume although it may not be a full recovery to match that of the pre-Covid era.
“We are positive on this as the high vaccination rate is a leading indicator that economic activities should recover faster in Malaysia as compared to most countries in Asean,” AmInvestment Bank added.
“The news is positive to Malaysia’s equity market. We believe that the sector stands to benefit the most is the transportation sector.”