PUTRAJAYA: Amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 will be tabled in Dewan Rakyat this coming Thursday (Dec 16) for a third reading, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       "We need to amend the law as soon as possible to allow for continuity in the regulations that were used under the Emergency Ordinance and have been annulled.

       "We are still at war against Covid-19 and still moving towards the endemic phase while facing new threats of emerging variants such as Omicron," he said at a press conference on Tuesday (Dec 14).

       Dr Noor Hisham noted that following the annullment of the Emergency Ordinances, health authorities were forced to rely on the present law, which was 32 years old and did not take into account changes in technology.

       "After Dec 8, the maximum fine that could be imposed on individuals or companies was only RM1,000 and this had become an issue recently.

       "This was because the Emergency Ordinances were annulled in the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 25 and Dewan Negara on Dec 8," he said.

       Dr Noor Hisham said that it was crucial for the proposed amendments to be tabled in Parliament in the current meeting which ends this coming Thursday. (Dec 16).

       "If we don't table it at this meeting, the next opportunity will only be in between three to six months time, when Parliament meets again.

       "Our efforts to combat the pandemic will be disrupted if we don't amend and improve the law," he said, adding that he hoped MPs would agree to the amendments and pass it during this meeting.

       He said that the amendments would also allow the authorities to make the necessary plans ahead of time if there is a spike in Covid-19 cases in the future.

       Among the amendments, he said, was to increase compounds against organisations, bodies or companies to RM1mil and RM10,000 on individuals.

       "RM1,000 compound for a company that rakes in millions in profit is a paltry sum and will have no effect. "That is why we are proposing to increase the compounds against companies," he said.

       He said the move is necessary as data has shown that most clusters and repeated offenders were from companies and manufacturing sectors.

       He noted that once the amendments are made, the finer details of the mechanism to implement the new regulations will be spelled out.

       However, the proposed law still gives the court discretion with regard to penalties imposed on offenders.

       Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali tabled the bill to amend Act 342 for the second reading in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Dec 14).