The youth and sports ministry, which issued a statement after a special session of the National Security Council (MKN) today, said the suspension included all sports and recreational activities in commercial premises or facilities as well as in public and open areas.

“The consideration and decision were made based on the risk assessment by the health ministry and also the challenges as well as current developments, in line with the desire to curb the spread of Covid-19, especially within communities,” it said.

However, sports and recreational premises or facilities can still carry out certain operations limited to management and maintenance only; quarantine-based centralised training programmes by the National Sports Council and camp-based training by state sports councils.

Also allowed are quarantined-based centralised training programmes for Malaysia League (M-League) teams while the organisation of tournaments and friendly matches according to the sports bubble model is limited to the M-League competitions without the presence of fans.

At the same time, local athletes and officials are also allowed to compete in overseas tournaments with the support of the sports ministry and permission from the immigration department.

The ministry said it would always support efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 and flatten the curve.

“The risk assessment by the authorities, will be done from time to time and permission for the sports and recreational sectors to operate again is our main commitment,” it said.

The SOPs for sports and recreation in areas placed under conditional MCO and recovery MCO remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, the public can obtain updated information regarding the SOP on the sports and recreational sectors for MCO areas on the MKN and sports ministry websites, which will be uploaded soon.