He said he understood the feelings of the people who wanted to return to their hometowns to visit their parents.

The good news would be announced once the national adult vaccination rate had reached 90%, he said.

“I believe many people want to return to their kampungs… Some have not seen their parents for more than a year, some parents are not healthy. My late mother, if I didn’t come back every week or two weeks once, she would cry when I phoned her.

“Many I believe are in the situation like I faced before. We understand but because of the pandemic, we have to restrict our movements but I have said we will not restrict the movement of the people forever,” he said in a media interview aired on local television stations tonight.

He was confident that unrestricted interstate travel was fast approaching as the percentage of the adult population fully vaccinated had reached over 86%.

The government would also allow people to go abroad without having to apply for the MyTravelPass once the 90% threshold was reached.

The pass allows foreign travel only for certain categories, such as official or business purposes, or education. Foreign tourism, however, is not allowed.

“I want to say that when the fully vaccinated rate has reached 90%, we will allow our people to go abroad without applying for MyTravelPass,” Ismail said.

The prime minister said the 90% threshhold was adopted so that no state would be left behind once travel restrictions were lifted.

“There were still states where the percentage was lower when others had reached 80%. So, to open up the whole of Malaysia, we do not want to leave behind the states that still have a lower percentage of their adult people fully vaccinated. That’s why we are waiting for 90% because each state’s average would then be more than 80%.

“Thus once we reach 90%, we’ll announce. This will be good news for all Malaysians,” he said.

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