No plans to follow US in easing SOPs for the vaccinated, says DG

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today said Malaysia would not follow the footsteps of the US which recently announced that fully vaccinated people can do away with wearing masks in most indoor and outdoor settings.

He said Malaysia would continue with its two existing methods of fighting Covid-19: vaccination and adherence to health SOPs.

In the UK, more than 30 million have been vaccinated but they still comply with the rule on masks,” he told MalaysiaNow.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday said it was lifting mask-wearing guidance for people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing.

“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

Almost 60% of US adults have received one or more doses of Covid-19 vaccine while cases have fallen to a seven-day-average of 38,000 or 11 per 100,000.

Noor Hisham reiterated his statement in March that those who have received two doses of vaccine must still follow the SOPs given the detection of new variants of the virus.

He said this was also to ensure a smooth rollout of the national immunisation programme which is currently in its second phase.

As of May 11, 1.17 million Malaysians had received at least one dose of vaccine while 724,517 had received two doses, totalling 2.2% of the population.