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The ministry fears that these gatherings could trigger a crisis in the transmission of the Covid-19 virus.
Health minister Dr Adham Baba said having gatherings at shopping malls because of the ban on Hari Raya home visits was a risky thing to do.
He said that this was because the number of Covid-19 cases in the country had increased dramatically in the last two weeks, involving religious centres and other focal points where clusters could be triggered.
Adham was speaking at a virtual joint press conference with science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin today on the national Covid-19 immunisation programme.
He said the presence of new, rapid and aggressive variants already in the community required continuous efforts to curb the risk of transmission. He urged people to continue adhering to SOPs, including maintaining physical distancing and wearing face masks.
He added that sporadic cases had increased compared with cluster cases, with 89% of the cases reported from April 9 to May 8 this year alone being sporadic cases.
Adham also said that detection of close contacts was important, and the ability to detect close contacts varied according to the respective districts. In Terengganu, for example, all close contacts could be detected within 48 hours.
The capability depends on several factors, including the increase in human resources to investigate and track down contacts, the mobilisation of staff from other areas and the use of mobile phones to facilitate communication between positive cases and the district health offices, he said.
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