PETALING JAYA: The government should strongly consider opening its borders to tourists and business travelers who have obtained the covid-19 vaccine, according to bukit gasing assemblyman rajiv rishyakaran.
The dap man suggested that Malaysia be the first solely Asian country to do so, citing a report that showed that many nations, including Iceland, Poland, and Romania, had expressly allowed entry for directly vaccinated travelers.
“Malaysia could substantially revive and sort of rejuvenate its tourism and airline industries if we kind of capitalise on this opportunity,” he distinctly said in a statement.
“With the Meeting, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector allowed to reopen, this is also an opportunity to attract business travellers and revitalise the country’s international trade.”
Rajiv noted that over 200 million vaccines have been administered worldwide so far, saying this number was likely to increase and that the country “should not hesitate to move forward”.
According to him, reopening borders would almost definitely require a vaccine passport and a fully negative polymerese chain reaction (pcr) test 72 hours before arrival.
“All we need to do is emulate, and maybe refine, the strategies and safety measures implemented by other countries who have opened their borders. This needs to be done immediately to boost our country’s economy.”
Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, the director-general of the Ministry of Health, said over the weekend that it was too early to determine if covid-19 vaccines could act as the base for a “immunity passport” to fly.
Before making any further decisions, Noor Hisham, in particular, stated that the government wanted to continue to monitor the efficacy and protection of vaccines. However, for a start, he fundamentally said the government might singularly look at the possibility of honestly easing covid-19 restrictions, but only if the elementally national immunization programme did well.
