You Could Be Fine RM10,000 For Breaking Covid-19 SOPs Soon

By Ammar Haziq  •  26 Aug 2020 in News

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Malaysia’s Health Director-General Dr Hisham Noor has proposed the fine for breaking standard operating procedures (SOPs) for Covid-19 to be raised from RM1,000 to RM10,000.

He said the RM1,000 fine under Act 342 (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988) needs to be revised to suit the current situation now, but it will take some time to be passed.

“The Act was drafted in 1988. The RM1,000 was reasonable back then but now we need to revise it. So I leave it to the parliamentarians to decide,” said Dr Hisham.

He was speaking at the special dialogue titled “Covid-19: Malaysia’s Journey Towards Flattening The Curve” in conjunction with the Malaysian Health Conference 2020 yesterday (25 August).

Dr Hisham was also awarded the National Icon Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership in Public Health by the KSI Strategic Institute for Asia-Pacific.

While Dr Hisham has been praised countless times for his efforts in battling Covid-19 in Malaysia, he explained that it was all a team effort. He said,

“I’m not the sole person doing the job. There are frontliners working behind the scenes.”

He also credited Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for his decision-making during the pandemic. “If you want to give credit, give it to the Prime Minister because he made the decisions. I only advised him,” he added.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is currently at 9,285 with 125 deaths.