Wearing masks or not must be based on scientific data, says MP

Dr Kelvin Yii

KUCHING (April 15): Chairman of Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Health, Science and Innovation Dr Kelvin Yii says the decision to wear masks or not should be made based on scientific data.

“Every decision, whether to relax restrictions on Covid-19 SOPs even in endemicity, must be based on data and science,” the Bandar Kuching MP said yesterday.

He was reacting to recent comments by the Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Hamzah in urging the Ministry of Health (MoH) and State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to consider removing the compulsory mask mandates.

“Based on current knowledge, the data shows that in outdoor and open ventilated areas, the likelihood of the virus spreading is lower compared to an indoor and less ventilated space. If we are outdoors and in a non-congested area, it is somewhat safer not to put on a mask,” said Dr Yii.

He said such data is used in Singapore’s decision to allow un-masking only in outdoor areas but still has mask mandates indoors, especially in crowded areas such as public transport.

“Data also shows that over-relaxed Covid-19 restrictions in other countries may cause a surge of cases that still overwhelms the healthcare system and diminishes the quality of care for all patients.”

One of reasons why Malaysia does not see a surge of cases even with Omicron is due to its more conservative SOPs including compulsory masking, he added.

“That is why I am glad the Malaysian government does not follow Singapore’s approach of un-masking outdoors this time due to congested places and events such as Ramadan bazaars.”

“With that said, the likelihood is that the masking-mandates, especially outdoors, will be relaxed especially after the Hari Raya celebration but it does not mean we must put our guards down.

“We do not want to see an uncontrollable surge which has been seen in countries that relaxed their restrictions too drastically.”

Meanwhile, several personalities asked about the issue at random suggested that the call on health-related issues should be made by medical experts and not politicians.

Parents in particular wanted their children to cultivate the habit of wearing masks outdoors whenever possible, very much like their counterparts in Japan and Korea – be it a mandate or not.

Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak secretary Andrew Lo said: “Let the medical professionals make the call, not politicians.”

Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) president Bobby William said: “Let’s make wearing face mask a personal choice.”

Abdul Karim on Wednesday urged the MoH and SDMC to study other countries’ Covid-19 pandemic handling approach, including removing the face mask mandate.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 strategy seemed to be more rigid compared with other countries despite having allowed most economic sectors to open and now into the endemic phase, he said.

He said other countries like Singapore and the United Kingdom had already partially removed the face mask mandate, with the public given the choice on whether to wear face masks or not, and he hoped Malaysia will go into that phase soon.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3jDVSVR
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