CORONAVIRUS | Higher education students who have been stuck on campus or off campus accommodation will gradually be allowed to return to their home towns starting April 27.

However, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the movement will be strictly regulated, and for now, students can only return to green zones if they are not currently staying in red zones.

Green zones are areas with zero recorded Covid-19 infections, while red zones are those with 41 or more cases.

Ismail said they will stick with such straightforward cases for now, and study further whether students would be allowed to return to red zones.

One possible alternative he gave as an example is that a student who wishes to return to an area under an enhanced movement control order, can instead return to the home of another relative such as a brother or sister.

For now, students can return in one of two ways.

The first, is to be shuttled by the government from their campus via bus, to a police station or district office, from which government agencies will deliver the students directly to their homes.

"This is to ensure that students have no room to go elsewhere," Ismail said at press conference in Putrajaya today.

Students returning to Sabah and Sarawak will be flown to the nearest airport to their homes.

However, these students will be subjected to a 14-day quarantine unless the Sabah and Sarawak governments decide otherwise.

The government will bear the full cost of shuttling the students home from campus.

The second method is for students with their own vehicles. These students are not allowed to cross state lines and must get permission from the nearest police station before leaving their accommodation.

A student from a Selangor campus, can only return to his or her residence in Selangor for example.

All travel for either method will be restricted from 9pm to 9am to avoid congestion.

All students who wish to return home will also be subjected to health screenings.

Further details will be furnished by the Higher Education Ministry, he said.

Ismail said some 53,000 or 85 percent of students under the Higher Education Ministry's purview will be involved in the exodus.

Another 15 percent, he said, have chosen to remain on campus.

He said this may be because their hometowns may not have good internet, and this would disrupt their online learning.

The government will continue to provide for those who remain on campus.

Ismail said the justification for allowing students to return home is that they have remained on campus for more than a month, which is twice longer than a quarantine period, and still remains free of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, on a separate matter, Ismail said the National Security Council is still working with the Health Ministry and police, regarding restriction regulations based on whether someone is in a green zone, yellow zone, or red zone.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin (above) had said that if the number of Covid-19 infections continues to decline, certain restrictions under the MCO may be relaxed.

For the past seven days, new infections have been in the double digits while more than 60 percent of total patients have already recovered, indicating that the infection curve has started to flatten.

Nonetheless, the government has extended the MCO to May 12.

Experts have warned that lifting restrictions too early could result in a resurgence of infections.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

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