Malaysia to reopen border to fully-vaccinated international travellers from April 1

Malaysia is set to reopen its border to international travellers from April 1, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced in a nationwide address today (March 8).

Fully-vaccinated travellers will be allowed to fly into the country without needing to serve out a quarantine. However, they will still be required to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test two days before departure and a professional antigen rapid test (ART) within 24 hours of arrival.

Ismail also announced that Malaysia would transition into the endemic phase from April 1. While the operation hours of businesses will no longer be limited, face masks will remain mandatory, he said.

Malaysia’s reopening of its borders comes nearly two years after Movement Control Order restrictions were first implemented on March 18, 2020, limiting both international and interstate travel.

Since then, it has gradually been lifting its travel restrictions — last November, Malaysia and Singapore launched land and air vaccinated travel lanes, facilitating quarantine-free travel between the two countries.

Malaysia reported 26,856 new Covid-19 cases on Monday (March 7), 211 of which were imported.