THE easing of Covid-19 restrictions beginning May 1 is a good move but Malaysia must remain cautious, the Malaysian Health Coalition said.

This is especially important when it comes to the mask mandate, as based on observations from other countries, hospital admissions have risen significantly after the mandate was loosened, the group said.

“Following the loosening of Covid-19 restrictions, including the removal of mask mandates in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, the number of inpatient admissions has increased with high morbidity rates. 

“In addition to that, only 43% of Malaysian children aged 5 to 11 have received at least one dose of the vaccine; and no vaccinations are available for children below the age of 5. 

“Children are thus at risk of contracting severe Covid and our policies must protect them. 

“Therefore, the removal of mask mandates in outdoor areas right before the Raya holidays should proceed with caution,” the MHC said in a statement today.

Last week, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that wearing masks outdoors will be optional from May 1, though still highly recommended.

Masking remains compulsory indoors and on public transport, including e-hailing vehicles.

Khairy said individuals may remove their masks when eating, drinking, exercising, delivering a speech and when performing, or if they are alone.

Now that restrictions have been eased, the MHC said there is a need to strengthen community responsibility, especially testing.

“The public must play their part as responsible citizens. The public should report all self-test results via MySejahtera and undergo home quarantine if their status on MySejahtera profile is high-risk or if they have been issued Home Surveillance Orders (HSO).”

Additionally, the group is calling on the Health Ministry to reconsider the easing of restrictions if data show that there is a need for it.

“If the epidemiological, virological or public health situations change, then the policies must be reconsidered. 

“Specifically, the Test-and-Release policy allowing for release from quarantine on Day 4 if a supervised RTK-antigen test returns negative may need to be reconsidered.”

There is also a need to increase genome sequencing to detect new variants of the virus, they added. – May 2, 2022.