Businesses in Kuala Lumpur opened up cautiously as people returned to the city centre on Monday, the first day under Malaysia’s conditional movement control order (MCO).

Although dine-in is now permitted with social distancing measures in place, some eateries and coffee shops in Pudu decided to stick with takeaways, after weighing the potential increased revenue against the possibility of becoming the next COVID-19 cluster.

Mr Chin Seng Fatt, who has been running his coffee shop for more than 20 years, said the extra steps from taking down diners’ details to placing the tables 2m apart were not worth the extra patronage.

“If we were to serve 50 people a day, and suddenly there’s a case, what will happen? Is everyone going to get called in and quarantined because of one person? It’s better to wait and see,” he said.

Malaysia imposed the MCO to restrict domestic and international travels on Mar 18 with the aim of curbing the spread of COVID-19. Six weeks into the MCO, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced last Friday that the government would ease some of the restrictions to allow the majority of the businesses to resume operations.

Total losses from weeks of economic inactivity were estimated at RM63 billion (US$14.6 billion), he said.

Malaysia on Monday reported 55 new cases of COVID-19, raising the national total to 6,353. No new fatalities were reported, leaving total deaths at 105.

On Monday morning, Kuala Lumpur traffic police reported an increase of almost 30 per cent in traffic volume compared to Sunday morning, according to Bernama.