Malaysia recommends people to continue wearing face masks
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.
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 Malaysiansto continue wearing face masks as the country is experiencing a small wave of COVID-19infections, after an increase in case numbers.
Given the current situation,Khairy said that mask usage is now “highly recommended” even though it remainsvoluntary.
He said at a press briefing thatbetween October 23 and 29, new infection cases increased by 16.5% to 16,917cases from the previous week’s 14,255 cases.
The number of patients inhospitals 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 indicatorsshowing an uptick.
Khairy said that while theincrease 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 politicalparties and politicians to lead by example in observing the standard operatingprocedures (SOPs) during their 15th general election campaign activities andwalkabouts.
He said that the ministry hasalready sent its view and recommendations to the Election Commission (EC) onthe COVID-19 SOPs on polling day and that the EC will be announcing thedetails./.
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A health worker injects COVID-19 vaccine for a local resident in Selangor, Malaysia. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) 
