Govt must not allow 'balik kampung' rush when allowing uni students to return home during MCO, says Health Ministry

PUTRAJAYA: The government must not allow a ‘balik kampung' rush to happen when allowing university students to return to their hometowns, says the Health Ministry.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there needs to be proper scheduling in releasing some 100,000 students from their campuses.

“We should not repeat the same mistake in the past when there was a rush of people returning to their hometowns.

“The ministry and the National Security Council are planning a strategy on this, ” said Dr Noor Hisham at the ministry’s daily press conference here Tuesday (April 21).

Earlier, senior minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government will consider allowing university students who have been staying back at their campuses throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) to return home.

Dr Noor Hisham said there have not been any Covid-19 clusters detected at any universities in the country.

“Many of the students have been holed up at their universities for the past four weeks. There’s no cluster detected among the students so far, and we will be able to screen them before they are sent home, ” he said.