KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — MIC has urged the Ministry of Education to reconsider the school opening date which is currently scheduled to start on January 20, following the increase in new cases of Covid-19 over the past few days.

Berita Harian today reported MIC vice-president Datuk C. Sivaraajh saying if the school session were to open that day, the ministry needs to provide a mitigation plan and control measures that could give confidence to parents and guardians.

"This is a worrying development. Students and parents, even teachers in schools are very concerned. If there are small mistakes in the process, we will probably have hundreds of clusters in schools across the country.

"Looking at the current trend of infection, even if the school reopens as announced, parents will be very hesitant to send their children to school, thus causing some students to lag behind in academic progress and others,” he said as reported by Berita Harian.

Sivaraajh said parents need to be given an explanation on the preparations to reopen the school.

If appropriate measures are not taken, he said students, teachers’ families and support staff at the school could be exposed to the risk of infection.

"What is the Ministry of Education’s mitigation plan, if there is a problem? 

"I believe the stakeholders, especially students and parents and teachers must consult and be given sufficient explanation on the smooth opening of the school later, if any problems arise later,” he said.

Yesterday, 2,643 new Covid-19 cases were recorded which adds up to 25,140 cases active with infectiousness.

A day before, Malaysia recorded its highest number with 3,027 new cases with Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah then projected 8,000 cases a day in the third week of March next year, if the value of infection (RO) exceeds the rate of 1.2.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, the RO should be lowered to a value of less than 0.5 to fully control the infection.