Health Ministry to present SOPs on reopening of child care centres

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry will present its proposed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the opening of child care centres to the National Security Council tomorrow.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told the daily press briefing today that the SOPs had been fine-tuned after studies with several departments and might see the reopening of such centres.

“If the council approves the SOPs, then we will consider opening the child care centres. But the date to allow the centres to be reopened needs to be further deliberated in the meeting.

“The services of child care centres are needed if we open more sectors and loosen the restrictions. What is more important is the safety of the children.

“The SOPs include children must not be allowed to mix freely, teachers are to remain with the group of children he or she is assigned to care for and they must not be put together with others.”

He said the ministry was also looking into providing child care services at more of its hospitals and at the same time requesting other private operators to prioritise children of healthcare workers.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were childcare centres at 112 hospitals and the facility would be increased to 34. Also being looked into were childcare centres that could operate in two shifts to cater to the healthcare workers’ schedule.

He added the trend of daily Covid-19 cases for the next week was being studied to see whether there would be a drastic increase or otherwise.

“Today we saw 12 cases of local transmissions, involving six Malaysians and the rest are foreigners.

“If we can sustain the rate at double digits or get it down to one, perhaps we can relax the restrictions in other sectors such as social, sports and education.

“We will advise the council and the prime minister on this. We will discuss and take the appropriate action.”

Source: NST