He said that the current travel restrictions would help curb the spread of Covid-19 and bring down the number of daily cases reported by his ministry.

“We ask for the rules on interstate and inter-district travel to be kept as it is now because it is very important to continue to flatten the curve.

“We are already seeing signs that cases are dropping, although we are doing a lot of (Covid-19) tests,” he told a press conference today.

He added that there are now two green zones in the peninsula, namely Bera and Lipis in Pahang, saying this positive development was partly thanks to the ban on interstate travel.

Adham was also optimistic that up to eight more districts in the peninsula would turn green soon, maintaining that community empowerment and awareness were key to curbing the spread of the virus.

He said the National Immunisation Programme might be rolled out earlier than Feb 26 as the first batch of vaccines might arrive in Malaysia ahead of schedule, following “special negotiations” with Pfizer.

He said health ministry staff who are going to administer the vaccines will be the first to get the jabs followed by other frontliners, during the first phase of the immunisation plan.

Adham said the health ministry was in talks to obtain another 30% supply of Covid-19 vaccine (Comirnaty or Concentrate For Dispersion For Injection), produced by Pfizer-BioNTech.

He said the additional amount would cover 50% of Malaysia’s population.