KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — The Election Commission (EC) must put a stop to house visits, gatherings and ceramah ahead of the Melaka state election to prevent a nationwide surge of Covid-19, urged the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) today.

The MMA recommended that all forms of campaigning should be done online even though Malaysia has officially entered the recovery phase of the pandemic.

"The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) is urging the Election Commission (EC) to disallow all forms of physical campaigning in the lead-up to the Melaka polls.

"We may be in the recovery phase in the pandemic but we are still not out of the woods; therefore, digital or virtual platforms should be used to campaign in order to prevent another surge of Covid-19,” said MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai in a statement today.

The professional body added that despite the country’s high inoculation rate, the fully vaccinated can still catch Covid-19 and transmit it to high-risk groups as well as the unvaccinated.

"With most sectors opened now, and the country set on the road to recovery, the people are finally going back to their jobs and businesses to recover from months of losses in income. Children are back to an almost normal schooling life now that schools have reopened. 

"While the frontliners are finally getting some respite with cases of Covid-19 on the downtrend. 

"What we don’t need now is another surge in Covid-19 cases,” the statement added.

Two days ago, national news agency Bernama reported EC chairman Datuk Abdul Ghani Salleh as announcing that November 20 will be polling day for the Melaka state election.

Nomination day is November 8 and early polling will be held on November 16.

Yesterday, Abdul Ghani also denied plans to restrict voting in the state election to those fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

He was responding to reports claiming he had said as such, along with plans to introduce voting slots to limit the risk of Covid-19 infection.