KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang has urged Putrajaya today to distribute the 10 million face masks imported from China to the public for free, after first giving priority to the frontliners.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said the war against Covid-19 virus must be a time to treat all Malaysians as one — regardless of ethnicity, religion, region or politics.

"After the frontliners, i.e. those who are handling the Covid-19 cases, clinics, Ministry of Health, police, immigration and military personnel, the balance of the 10 million face masks from China should be equitably distributed to all Malaysians through MPs regardless of party politics,” he said in a statement.

"With the free distribution of the 10 million face masks to Malaysians, incidents where members of the public are turned away from government departments because they do not have face masks should not happen again,” he added.

Yesterday, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the government will import 10 million face masks from China gradually in order to meet the domestic demand.

The works minister said the masks will be distributed by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to the frontliners, before they will be sold to the public.

Fadillah said that the government will set up a committee which consists of the Finance Ministry, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and Transport Ministry to fix the price mechanism of the masks when it is supplied to the public.

He said that the decision to import the mask from China was made during the National Security Council meeting on Friday, which was chaired by the Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and attended by the Cabinet Ministers as well as all mentris besar and chief ministers from their respective states.