KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 — The Health Ministry has met with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to discuss "in principle” the lifting of the movement control order (MCO) set to expire on April 28, said Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

After confirming the meeting, however, the Health director-general stressed that the notion hinged on two vital issues: local transmissions of Covid-19 and the population’s movement in the event controls are relaxed.

"Yes, we did have a meeting with the PM this morning, but more importantly, we discussed in principle the six criteria we have.

"We discussed the principle, but now we need facts and science behind it before we can table concrete evidence to show that whether we need to extend (MCO) or not,” he said in his daily Covid-19 press briefing here.

The six criteria Dr Noor Hisham first listed on Tuesday are: effective border control, population mobility, the health system’s capacity, steps to protect high-risk groups, adherence to new norms, and inter-agency cooperation in devising an exit strategy.

Dr Noor Hisham stressed that Malaysia must continue to strengthen its border control as it was evident that almost 180 countries in the world have been infected with Covid-19, adding that lifting the MCO also does not mean easing border control.

"Certainly, we are still monitoring the situation closely, but the most important are border control as well as movement control. Lifting the MCO doesn’t mean we are going to lift border control, in fact, we have to strengthen border control.

On local transmissions, Dr Noor Hisham cited how trends in terms of daily reported cases observed the past few days showed an encouraging decline.

"I would like to draw your attention here, today, we have 71 cases of which 19 cases are imported cases. This means 52 are local transmissions. Out of the 52, 22 involved foreign workers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan from Selangor Mansion.

"So we really need to look into local transmission. When we ease MCO, our movement control basically has to look into local transmission. These are some of the indicators we have.

"We need to compile the six indications and advise the PM on whether to continue the MCO or whether there will be ‘baby steps’ exit strategy... this is something we will discuss in the next few days,” he said.

Selangor Mansion was previously placed under an enhanced movement control order (EMCO) on April 7 after 15 cases were detected in its vicinity the day before.

Earlier today, Dr Noor Hisham reported 71 new Covid-19 patients in the country including two more Covid-19 deaths.