KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia cannot afford, in economic and welfare terms, to implement another lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, says Khairy Jamaluddin (pic).

       The Health Minister said on the other hand, the government's strategy to contain the pandemic was to implement mitigation strategies.

       "There is no doubt that China’s approach (to enforce a lockdown) has been effective.

       "However, their containment and ‘Zero Covid’ strategy also means a total lockdown (is enforced) when there are only three positive cases,” Khairy said in a Twitter post on Sunday (Jan 9).

       In his tweet, Khairy also attached a screenshot of a news report headlined "Yuzhou: Second Chinese city forced into Covid lockdown”.

       Khairy said Malaysia, after having successfully achieved a high vaccination rate, had managed its Covid-19 cases effectively, besides constantly reminding the people to continue to adhere to standard operating procedures to ensure the fatality rate, use of intensive care units and hospital admissions can be reduced.

       Meanwhile, Khary also expressed his full support for Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to continue his duties as Health director-general.

       His response followed Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing’s statement on Facebook on Sunday questioning Dr Noor Hisham’s expertise in the field of public health due to the director-general's background as a surgeon.

       - Bernama