Malaysia recommends people to continue wearing face masks

A health worker injects COVID-19 vaccine for a local resident in Selangor, Malaysia. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysian Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on October 31 recommended Malaysians to continue wearing face masks as the country is experiencing a small wave of COVID-19 infections, after an increase in case numbers.

Given the current situation, Khairy said that mask usage is now “highly recommended” even though it remains voluntary.

He said at a press briefing that between October 23 and 29, new infection cases increased by 16.5% to 16,917 cases from the previous week’s 14,255 cases.

The number of patients in hospitals also grew by 14.3%, for every 100,000 people.

However, he stressed that the overall COVID-19 situation remained under control despite the main indicators showing an uptick.

Khairy said that while the increase in new cases were found to have been driven by the Omicron variant, the ministry suspected the catalyst to be the XBB sub-variant.

Khairy also advised political parties and politicians to lead by example in observing the standard operating procedures (SOPs) during their 15th general election campaign activities and walkabouts.

He said that the ministry has already sent its view and recommendations to the Election Commission (EC) on the COVID-19 SOPs on polling day and that the EC will be announcing the details./.

VNA