Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this today in a statement following the first special committee meeting on pandemic management.

The last time the country’s Covid-19 infectivity rate national average had registered below 1.0 was in late June. It then hit 1.0 on June 28 and continued to rise over the next two months.

Meanwhile, Ismail said the Covid-19 vaccine supply access guarantee special committee (JKJAV) expects vaccination rates to reach 80% (of the adult population) for all states by the end of September.

Ismail added he was hopeful that the vaccination rate may even reach 100% for adults by the end of October.

However, he reminded the public that they must be prepared to live with Covid-19 as an endemic problem even after everyone has been vaccinated.

Hence, the health ministry has been asked to table new suitable strategies aside from compliance to SOPs.

“I welcome the call to implement a behavioural change, announced by the health ministry on Sept 1. ‘Keluarga Malaysia’ must come to realise that, in the end, we will be forced to live with Covid-19, like what has been happening around the world.”

Meanwhile, he said the special committee has decided that Melaka will move to Phase 2 and Negeri Sembilan to Phase 3 under the national recovery plan. This will take effect on Sept 4.

The committee also decided to reopen tourism at a few destinations under the “travel bubble” programme, subject to several criteria.

For a start, Ismail said Langkawi has been chosen as a pilot project and will open to domestic tourists beginning Sept 16.

He added that other tourist destinations will be allowed to operate once their local vaccination rates reach 80%.

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