JOHOR BARU, April 17 ― The Johor government will begin distributing 3.5 million face masks it received from the federal government to household heads in the state as soon as possible in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

State Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said the distribution would be done according to the state residents’ data obtained from the Statistics Department.

"Priority will be given to the people in high risk areas in every district,” he said in a statement here today.

Vidyananthan said the distribution would be done by the respective Village Community Management Councils, community or village heads using a method deemed suitable by them so as not to cause massive movement or gathering of the local public.

He said each household will receive four pieces of face masks to be used should any of their family members were showing symptoms of influenza.

In another development, Vidyananthan said 97 quarantine stations had been gazetted in Johor as of yesterday and 31 of them are now fully operational. ― Bernama