Announcement on indoor mask mandate 'very soon', says Khairy

An announcement on whether the face mask mandate for enclosed spaces will be withdrawn will be made very soon, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin says. 

"We have already discussed it internally, more or less we know what the decision is. Give me a few days," he said at a press conference after an event in Kuala Lumpur today.

Khairy was responding to a statement by the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) on Wednesday, urging the government to review its policy on the mandatory use of face masks in enclosed spaces following a similar decision made by other countries, including Singapore. 

MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said this was because the number of Covid-19 cases in the country had reached a "plateau of sorts" and the number of hospitalisations due to the virus was not high.

Previously, National Recovery Council chairman Muhyiddin Yassin said that the health ministry would look into and decide whether to abolish the use of face masks in enclosed spaces. 
 
Meanwhile, Khairy said the health ministry was still studying the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to authorise booster shots that target the Omicron BA.5 subvariant. 

He said the ministry had its own technical working group for Covid-19 vaccines which would evaluate data before making its recommendation.