Johor State Gov Hopes to Reopen The Border With S’pore ‘Within The Next Few Days’

A few days ago, the Malaysian government announced a nationwide partial lockdown, which will be taking place from today, 18 Mar, until 31 Mar 2020.

The lockdown resulted in the closure of the border between Johor Bahru and Singapore, resulting in huge crowds at checkpoints and heavy traffic jams last night.

People were trying to squeeze into Singapore before the gate shut and the lockdown officially began.

Right now, the Causeway looks something like this:

No, seriously, I didn’t Photoshop this. This is probably the emptiest that it has been in years. Or in my entire life.

There Are Plans For The Border To Reopen

The closure of the border between Malaysia and Singapore will certainly cause consequences.

About 300,000 people travel to Singapore from Malaysia every day for work or school, and all of them will be affected. Not to mention the business that will have to deal with the loss of some of their employees for 14 days.

But, it doesn’t seem like they will have to suffer for long.

Hopefully.

The Johor State government said on Wed, 18 Mar, that it hopes to reopen the border with Singapore within the next few days, according to The Star.

“We are coming up with a mitigation plan during this Covid-19 outbreak,” said Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad.

“Among the categories exempted are those with work passes by Malaysia or Singapore, students studying in Singapore, those with specialised skills, businessmen, those involved in logistics and others that would be announced soon.”

*Pray* *Hope*

Special Committee To Come Up With A Mitigation Plan

In the event that the border does reopen soon, there will be more stringent health checks conducted on both sides of the border.

Hasni announced this during a press conference today after a meeting with the state executive councillors, held at Kota Iskandar.

He also explained that a special committee headed by him, the state secretary and state security council would discuss the matter today. They would then have a discussion with their Singaporean counterparts the day after before they forwarded the matter to the Federal Government for any announcement.

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The reopening of the border does not mean that you should be running over to Malaysia for cheap food and shopping any time soon.

Malaysia currently has 673 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 2 deaths. It is better not to go over unless it is completely necessary.

The main purpose of reopening the border would be to allow Malaysians who work and study in Singapore to continue doing so despite the country’s lockdown.

Currently, the border between Singapore is locked down to everyone, except for lorries and people with special permission.

So unless you’re a lorry, it’s time to patiently wait until more information is released about the reopening of the border.