Khairy says Johor poll may see spike in Covid-19 cases, but new SOP set to handle rise of Omicron

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — The Health Ministry said today that Covid-19 restrictions for the Johor state election will be different than those for previous elections held under the pandemic, in order to cushion the impact of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in a press conference today did not discount the possibility of a spike in the number of cases due to the election, but the ministry wants to ensure that there will be no significant rise in hospital admissions due to Covid-19.

“But as we all know that SOP (standard operating procedures) in Melaka was a success and there was no spike, as well as Sarawak SOP [for state election] as there were no spikes too. 

“But in Johor it will be a little bit different because it comes with [the threat of] Omicron. So to say that there will not be a spike, I won’t commit that because there will be an Omicron spike. 

“But what we want to see is the severity of cases [indicators] such as hospital admissions to not have an exponential surge,” he said after launching the National Covid-19 Vaccination Program for children (PICKids) at the Tunku Azizah Hospital here.

Political parties have expressed hope that they will be given the space and opportunity to conduct physical and face-to-face campaigning with some relaxation given to the Covid-19 regulations in the upcoming Johor State Election.

According to the CovidNow website, yesterday Johor recorded 1,063 new daily infections including one death which came second to Selangor that recorded 1,385 cases.

Last month, Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar gave his royal assent to the dissolution of the Johor state legislative assembly, paving the way for a premature state election.

Caretaker Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad leads the state government with a razor-thin majority of 28 seats. BN holds 16 seats while Bersatu has 11 seats, and PAS one.

The opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition controls 27 seats in the Johor state assembly comprising DAP with 14, Parti Amanah Negara (six) and PKR (seven).