The nationwide lockdown across Malaysia that started on 1 June was scheduled to end today on 28 June. The government announced on 27 June, that the lockdown will continue until the daily new cases of Covid-19 drop below 4000.

With this indefinite extension, the government announced that additional assistance measures for all groups of society will be announced within the week.

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/06/27/lockdown-will-not-end-on-monday-june-28-says-pm and https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/06/27/pm-total-lockdown-wont-be-lifted-tomorrow-as-covid-19-cases-still-over-4000/1985350

Comments by British Council:

The Malaysian government’s National Recovery Plan (NRP) outlines four stages. These are based on three key indicators:

- Covid-19 transmissions among community on a daily basis

- capacity and capability of the public healthcare system based on the bed utilisation in intensive care units

- percentage of population that have received two doses of vaccines

To move from the current Phase One of the plan into Phase Two, the daily number of cases needs to be lower than 4000. Under one month of Full Movement Control Order (FMCO) the number of cases has dropped, however, the daily increase still remains between 5000 to 6000, resulting in the extension of the lockdown. Only essential services remain open, most sectors including education are closed. All sectors await further announcements of the assistance initiatives that are due to be announced by the government.

The impact on education institutions remains unclear with regard to when they will be allowed to re-open for face-to-face learning. During Phase One, all institutions had been advised to move to online teaching and learning.

For international students preparing for overseas study, there may be implications for the time taken for visa application appointments and issuance, given that most organisations are also working with reduced teams on premises and most staff are working online. We recommend that institutions remain flexible and continue supporting students with quick decisions, issuance of supporting documents and required details for arrival into UK and campuses.