Malaysia Relaxes COVID-19 SOP Rules

… requirements for vaccination status has been adjusted to allow a lot more social activities to be conducted by unvaccinated individuals, such good news that this group of citizens would certainly welcome with cheers. Individuals without complete vaccination status OR without having received any vaccination are now allowed to attend or perform essential activities …

After two gruesome years of haphazardly enforced lockdown and restriction, the Malaysian government released a new set of guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) effective April 1st, 2022 to facilitate the return of more normal living conditions and the orderly moving back to regular social norms in the country.

The complete document in PDF, the latest set of SOP this year 2022, written in Malay language, can be downloaded from this link here (approx. 31MB).

Good News For The Unvaccinated

In page 13 of the said guideline document, requirements for vaccination status has been adjusted to allow a lot more social activities to be conducted by unvaccinated individuals, such good news that this group of citizens would certainly welcome with cheers. Individuals without complete vaccination status OR without having received any vaccination are now allowed to attend or perform essential activities as follows:-

• Purchase food, drinks and necessities;
• Lodging in hotels, guest accommodation and homestays;
• Obtain medical and health services including access to laboratories and pharmacies;
• Attend activities involving career and life including schooling, exams, career-related courses, work and interview;
• Access to banking activities including pawnbrokers;
• Marriage, registration of marriage and divorce;
• Sports and recreational activities that do not involve bodily contact in open areas;
• Transportation by air, sea or land including crossing of states in Malaysia; and
• Other activities involving emergency situations such as access to temporary evacuation centers.

However, the new guideline also stipulated that parties that are responsible for any access to premises may prescribe additional conditions and requirements to protect employees, customers and visitors to their respective premises.

Requirements of being FULLY VACCINATED also remains enforced for individuals attending or performing activities that involve large crowd gathering and activities that are difficult for individuals to keep physical distancing of at least one (1) meter, where possible.

We also noted that there is no mention in regards to access to places of worship, in particular to churches, specific about attendance by unvaccinated individuals.

Another area of concern that is still vague by definition; dining-in, whether this is going to be allowed for the unvaccinated. The new guideline does not specifically address this issue, whether the unvaccinated are still explicitly prohibited from entering restaurants. However, it was stipulated that the unvaxxed is allowed to patronize hotels and commercial rest houses, therefore it is only logical that they should also be allowed to dine-in at restaurants in these premises as well. But we shall soon see in due course, whether I will be fined or not, if I sit in a restaurant tomorrow to enjoy a good meal.

In other recent events, the use of MySejahtera mobile application for monitoring movement and COVID-19 vaccination statuses of individuals, has been scaled down, and Malaysians are no longer required to check in or out with the app when entering of exiting public places or facilities. The use of the said app is now only retained to indicate a person’s vaccination status and no more.

For those who remained steadfast to the truth, Spinning Shekel congratulates you for your resilience and persistence in saying no to medical tyranny, as we pray and continue to hope, with high expectations, for more removal of unfair restrictions.

After being deprived of sporting activities for over two years, the time has come for me to clean up my clubs and to head back to the greens. Awesome!