Govt in the process to gazette wearing face mask - Dep Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 -- The government is in the process of gazetting the order on  compulsory wearing of face mask in public places as soon as possible to contain the spread of COVID-19 infection, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

He said the authorities are discussing to set a gazette date soon.

“Meanwhile we encourage the people to wear face mask in crowded public places,” he said at a media conference in Parliament building here today.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in a special message on the latest Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) development on Monday, said the government was considering making wearing face mask compulsory as the COVID-19 threat is still not over.

He said details on the move would be announced when the related regulation has been finalised by the government.

This followed a global rise of COVID-19 cases including Malaysia and several countries have made  wearing of face mask compulsory including Singapore in April which requires the people  to wear face mask when coming out of the house.

Meanwhile commenting on the current COVID-19 situation, Dr Noor Azmi said the spike in local transmissions and active cases is worrying more so with the creation of new clusters.

“We are ready if the cases increase further. Our worries now is how we want to control it as we found home quarantine is not effective .

“So we are relieved with the decision to withdraw home quarantine and enforce compulsory quarantine at quarantine stations,” he said.

Dr Noor Azmi also described individuals who defy the quarantine order as irresponsible as they are carrying the risk to others.

“We will be sending police to act against those who deliberately violate the order,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the Ministry of Health (MOH) has conducted contact tracing on family members and individuals linked to the woman whose viralled picture showed her eating at a restaurant in Perak with the home quarantine wristband on. 

In this regard, he said MOH would be beefing up its team in Sarawak to evaluate the implementation of the RMCO especially in areas with infection.

Yesterday, another new cluster was detected in Sarawak bringing the overall total to eight clusters reported in the state so far.

The new cluster also raised the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Sarawak to double digit when 11 new cases were reported yesterday.

-- BERNAMA