KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Health Ministry officials will be present at every polling station in the country this Saturday when Malaysians vote in their next government of choice, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told Berita Harian.
He said the health officials will be there to provide assistance to voters who are Covid-19 positive, the newspaper reported last night.
He added that the ministry has come out with steps to be taken to curb the coronavirus from spreading further on its social media accounts, and urged voters to comply.
“These steps are necessary and are needed to ensure the voting process runs safely and reduce the risk of infection to other voters as well as staff at the polling centre,” the Health director-general was quoted as saying.
According to the general measures, it is compulsory for voters that have Covid-19 to wear face masks, while those that are not infected by the coronavirus are also strongly encouraged to mask-up.
Covid-19 positive voters are not allowed to use public transport — including e-hailing services — to travel to polling stations, and they are not allowed to stop anywhere other than the voting station before or after casting their vote.
It is also compulsory for Covid-19 positive voters to practise physical distancing, and they are also not allowed to linger at polling stations and must return home immediately after voting.
The ministry also encouraged voters to carry their own hand sanitisers and use it often.
On November 6, Harian Metro reported that the Health Ministry recommended the Election Commission (EC) to allow those who are Covid-19 positive to cast their ballots without having to join a queue to reduce the risk of infecting others by just showing their health status on the MySejahtera smartphone app.
It is unclear if the EC has decided on the matter as there have been no follow-up news reports.
