Children aged 12 and below barred from going outside except for three reasons, says NSC

PETALING JAYA: During the lockdown, all children aged 12 years and below are not allowed to be in any public place or facility, except for reasons of emergencies, treatment, education or exercise, says the National Security Council.

Under the general health standard operating procedure in the NSC website, it was stated all children aged 12 years and below are barred from venturing outside, except for the three given reasons.

On Monday (May 31), Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba (pic) said that Malaysians should be very concerned, as a total of 82,341 cases of Covid-19 infection in the country involved infants and children.

The grim figure was disclosed by Dr Adham, who said of the total, 19,851 cases involved children below four years old; 8,237 cases (five to six); 26,851 (seven to 12) and 27,402 (13 to 17), and they were Covid-19 patients in categories 1,2 and 3.

Dr Adham advised parents or guardians to be more responsible in protecting children from being infected, and this included not taking them to crowded places.

According to him, although there is no provision under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 that allows compound notices to be issued to parents who take children to crowded places, investigation papers can be opened.