Ramadan bazaars still possible if MOH guidelines followed - DG

Updated 6.20pm: CORONAVIRUS | Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Ramadan bazaars may still be allowed to operate as long as they are able to follow the ministry’s standard operating procedure (SOP) in preventing Covid-19 transmission.

“More important is to practice safe distancing and all precautions taken, good hygiene.

“Control is important to avoid crowded places. Basically we need to look into implementation.

“As long as they can follow our SOP to avoid contact and have good spacing and hand washing and control the whole area,” Hisham (above) said.

This comes after Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa said earlier today that Ramadan bazaars will not be cancelled but will be adjusted as they are needed by the people.

He had also said the management of Ramadan bazaars in the Federal Territories will be modified this year to prevent crowd congestion.

Noor Hisham also gave on update on Malaysia’s testing capacity per day, saying it has now increased to 11,750 tests a day.

They are now running tests in about 46 laboratories and the director-general said his goal is to reach 16,500 tests a day.

All this must be done using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique which detects the antigen and not just the antibodies.

“We are (also) seeing two new methods that is the rapid test kits (RTK) from South Korea which looks at antigen, and if the accuracy to detect (the disease) is good, we will make another 200,000 orders,” he said.

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