PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is still in the early stage of discussions on reopening the country's borders to green zone countries.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the discussions involved multiple agencies including the Health Ministry and Foreign Ministry with their counterparts.
Last week, it was reported the government was in the midst of discussing opening its borders to those from Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
He said matters being discussed included the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and policies in handling the pandemic.
"There is no solid agreement between any of these countries involved (since) such discussions are still in the early stages, and the arrangements (with any country) must be mutual and reciprocal.
"We are also looking at opening the border to other countries apart from the six countries," he told at the daily Covid-19 press conference, here, today.
Dr Noor Hisham also said the discussions would determine whether country's borders would be reopened during the Recovery Movement Control Order phase, which is scheduled to expire on Aug 31, or after RMCO.
He said the Health Ministry was the authoritative body for Malaysia in deciding which countries were categorised as the green zone nations.
He explained the ministry had identified the countries based on their domestic rate of infection or imported cases involving foreigners as well as the latest Covid-19 trend.
On hospital visitations, Dr Noor Hisham said they were still off limit.
"The threat of Covid-19 is still there. We will not open up (hospital) visitations to the public any time soon.
"Only family members of the critically sick are allowed for visitations. Our advice is not to bring along children or elderly people to the hospitals.
"Those who come to the hospitals must still be screened to assure that they do not have symptoms." he said.