PUTRAJAYA, April 11 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has called for patience today and suggested against allowing students trapped at their respective universities to return home, following a remark by Higher Education Minister Datuk Noraini Ahmad.
Its director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah called the third phase of the movement control order “the most crucial” period in the fight against Covid-19, and that allowing students to return could undo all the work done to mitigate the outbreak.
“Our advice to the Ministry of Higher Education is to be patient for the next one or two weeks,” he told a daily briefing on the Covid-19 crisis here.
“Maybe in the first week of the third MCO phase we can look at the latest data and then perhaps we can advise them again.”
Higher Education Minister Datuk Noraini Ahmad said yesterday that her ministry is studying ways to send students stranded in their campuses back to their homes, after repeated pleas for the government to help.
She said that the matter would be discussed in the special Cabinet meeting today.
This prompted Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to instruct the MOH to study the suggestion after the government extended the movement control order (MCO) to April 28.
But Dr Noor Hisham said the third phase of the MCO will be a “crucial” period in the war against the outbreak.
He has recommended that no risk be taken to undo the successes achieved over the last four weeks, even as he acknowledged the massive cost the restrictions have had on lives and the economy.
“Since we are entering a crucial period that is the third phase of the MCO, we must maintain the restrictions if we are to reduce infections,” he said.
“Based on our projection, we will likely succeed if Malaysians are together with the MOH to ensure that the restrictions in phase one and two are maintained so that the third phase we shall see cases reduce.”
