TAN Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic) was appointed to head the National Recovery Council (NRC) as he had been chairing the council’s meetings since its inception, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said the former prime minister was chosen to ensure continuity.
“He had been chairing the meetings since the NRC was formed. That is why we gave him the trust to continue his duty,” he said in response to a question by Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (PH-Kulim Bandar Baharu).
To another question by Saifuddin on why the government relaxed the social and economic restrictions despite the Covis-19 death toll hovering at three-digit figures daily, Ismail Sabri maintained that the decision was done based on science and data.
He said Covid-19 clusters from the 11 recently reopened economic sectors were few.
“For example the barbers, beauty salons and carwash, had sparked little to no known cases or clusters throughout 2020.
“Based on data like these, we focused on reopening certain sectors,” he said.
Ismail Sabri added that the government decided to open up economic sectors as the lockdown move was no longer feasible and was feared to have more negative implications, including on the mental health of Malaysians.
The reopening of the economic sectors would not only help speed up economic recovery but would also give the people the opportunity to improve their livelihoods, he said.
“The reopening of 11 economic sectors in states under Phase One of the National Recovery Plan was appropriate due to the high vaccination rates in those states.
“The government decided after taking into consideration data from the risk assessments conducted by the Health Ministry and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry,” he said in reply to Datuk Mohd Salim Sharif (BN-Jempol) who questioned the government’s move to reopen sectors amid high daily Covid-19 cases.
Ismail Sabri also said 74.7% of the adult population in Malaysia had been fully vaccinated while 91.6% had received at least the first dose.