SHAH ALAM, Jan 3 — The Education Ministry (MoE) will follow the Health Ministry’s (MoH) lead when it comes to Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) in schools, said Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek.
MoE will occasionally consult MoH for advice on the matter, she told reporters at SMK Jalan Kebun during a visit here this morning.
“For now, we will defer to MoH and follow its advice,” she said.
She was responding to a question on whether there will be any changes in Covid-19 SOPs in schools with the discovery of the two new variants here previously reported in China.
Yesterday, national news agency Bernama quoted Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah as saying that the variants BA.5.2 and BF.7 had been detected in Malaysia as of December 31.
However, he clarified that the variants have not yet resulted in any serious cases and deaths.
“Both variants are listed as sublineage Omicron BA.5 and have not been linked as Lineage Under Monitoring (LUM) by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“However, both the BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants are believed to have been caused by recurring cases or those who have a high chance of contracting the variant due to a high number of cases in China,” he was quoted as saying.
He also said that the XBB variant is currently the dominant strand of Covid-19 in Malaysia since October.
