Health experts: Delta danger means no relaxing of rules for now

PETALING JAYA: Despite a steady improvement in the nation’s vaccination rate, health experts still want rules for face masks and physical distancing to be maintained in view of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases involving the Delta variant.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said the authorities should keep the current standard operating procedures such as the mandatory use of face masks, physical distancing and scanning the MySejahtera app because of the widespread of the Delta variant and many community infections.“It is important to maintain the SOP as we can see an emergence of new clusters nationwide,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He added that the SOP should be maintained until the national vaccination coverage reached a reasonable percentage.

“Therefore, rules such as wearing face masks, physical distancing, avoiding crowded places and practising good hygiene are still very relevant and a must for everyone,” Dr Zainal Ariffin said.

Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah also believes the current rules should stay.“There are some people who have been vaccinated but are still getting infected. That means vaccination is not 100% foolproof, so we must still follow the SOP,” he said.

He said current vaccines protect and reduce the effects, but the Covid-19 virus – SARS-CoV-2 – continues to mutate from time to time.

“So, we still need to be careful of future mutations and take extra precautions,” he added.

New research has also shown that relaxing non-pharmaceutical interventions such as face mask use and physical distancing measures when most people have been immunised greatly increases the risk of vaccine-resistant variants of Covid-19, AFP reported.

The authors of a research paper from Austria’s Institute of Science and Technology said their modelling study showed the need to maintain face mask wearing and physical distancing rules until everyone is fully vaccinated against the virus.

Europe, which is now witnessing the rapid spread of the Delta variant, is in a similar scenario, where 60% of the population is vaccinated.

In the United States, where 60% of adults are fully vaccinated, the conditions appear similar. Also, 80% of new Covid-19 cases there involve the Delta variant.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing a face mask indoors for vaccinated people in areas where the prevalence of the Delta variant is higher.