Malaysia on Sunday lifted interstate and international travel restrictions for residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as the country achieved its target of inoculating 90 per cent of its adult population.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government has agreed to allow fully vaccinated Malaysians to travel overseas without applying for permission.
The new rules take effect on Monday.
The government is preparing to shift into an endemic COVID-19 phase where it will not impose wide lockdowns again if cases rise, Ismail Sabri told a news conference.
"We have to train ourselves to live with COVID, because COVID may not be eliminated fully," he said.
Nearly 65 per cent of the country's 32 million population, including those aged 12 to 17, were fully vaccinated as of Saturday.
The Southeast Asian nation has recorded 2.3 million coronavirus infections and 27,265 deaths from COVID-19.
Israel's military kept up its assault on Gaza City and the wider Gaza Strip on Saturday, dismantling underground shafts and booby-trapped structures in attacks that left 34 Palestinians dead, according to Gazan health authorities.
World leaders gather in New York this coming week for a UN General Assembly dominated by US President Donald Trump's return to the rostrum, war in Gaza and Ukraine, rising Western recognition of Palestinian statehood and nuclear tensions with Iran.
Russia launched a major drone and missile attack on Ukraine overnight, killing three people and injuring dozens, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
The UN Security Council voted on Friday to restore sweeping economic sanctions on Iran in response to renewed concerns over its nuclear activities, a move that drew sharp condemnation from Tehran.
The bodies of 19 people were recovered after the rubber migrant boat they were in sank off the eastern Libyan coast, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.