MoH confident SOPs for schools will prevent spread of Covid-19

Friday 19 Apr 2024

KUALA LUMPUR (June 2): The Ministry of Health (MoH) is confident that the standard operating procedures it prepared with the Ministry of Education (MoE) for the reopening of schools will be able to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.

MoH director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the guidelines are ready and the dates for the reopening of schools will be announced two weeks before that.

For now, a decision has yet to be reached on when that will be.

"We have completed the guidelines together with MoE, but we can always improve the guidelines according to the current situation," Noor Hisham said during his daily Covid-19 media briefing on Wednesday.

"Yesterday (Tuesday), I had the opportunity to go to a school to see the implementation [of the guidelines]. Our priority when we reopen the schools will be for Form Five and Form Six students, who will be sitting for their exams.

"Looking at the implementation, we are confident that the SOPs can control the spread of the infection," Noor Hisham added.

Part of the SOPs is that students will not be allowed to dine in the school canteen.

"The children will not eat in the canteen. Instead, they will queue, one metre apart, pick up their food and go to their classrooms to eat. Because there are already social distancing measures in the classrooms," Noor Hisham explained.

"This is our plan and we hope that the implementation will run smoothly," he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said the guidelines for the reopening of schools will be distributed on Thursday (June 4) to allow schools and teachers to make appropriate preparations for when schools reopen.

Included in the guidelines are how students are allowed to move about in the school compound, from the time they arrive until the time they leave, and what to do if any students showed symptoms of the coronavirus.

Schools nationwide have been closed since the imposition of the Movement Control Order on March 18. The current Conditional Movement Control Order is due to last until June 9.

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