KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — The Health Ministry will be refining its standard operating procedures (SOP) for massage centres and spas under the recovery movement control order (RMCO) with the National Security Council next week.

Its director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told his daily Covid-19 press conference that currently, they are still studying the SOP for the sector when queried by the media.

"We will present the SOP to the NSC maybe next week. Right now, we are still discussing the SOP with all divisions and the methods we can use to ensure public safety.

"We will refine the SOP before presenting it to them,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

He added that under the RMCO phase, Putrajaya is encouraging all economic sectors to open on a phase-by-phase basis.

For the massage centres, particularly those that employ the special needs community (OKU), the SOP is still being studied in detail.

Dr Noor Hisham added that barbers and hair salons have already been opened upon, but before all economic sectors can be allowed to operate, the government must ensure that it can maintain the number of fresh cases at double or single digits.

Their earlier concern that the Hari Raya festive season might see a spike has been allayed and the government has also noted the decreasing amount of new Covid-19 cases in the country.

Today, saw Malaysia recording 31 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total figure to 8,369 cases.

The latest double-digit figure Is a rise, following single-digit infections in the last three days.

From the 31 new cases, he said 11 were imported cases involving returning Malaysians who were infected overseas.

"Out of the 20 local transmission cases, only one involved a Malaysian. The case was detected during a health screening at a tahfiz school in Selangor.

"There were also 19 new cases of foreigners where 16 were from the Pedas cluster in Negri Sembilan, one from the Sungai Lui tahfiz cluster, one from the Kuala Lumpur-based cleaning company and one from the Kuala Lumpur construction site,” said Dr Noor Hisham.