QuickCheck: Did the Health Ministry advise seniors not to vote?

A STATEMENT allegedly from the Health Ministry has been making its rounds on social media recommending that those aged 60 and above not vote in the Johor elections in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among this group.

Is this true?

Verdict:

FALSE

According to a post on the Health Ministry's Facebook account, the ministry has denied ever making the recommendation.

It then advised the public not to share the message, labelling it as fake news.

In a report on Feb 3, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said his ministry was in the midst of finalising the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the Johor state election before it was submitted to the Election Commission (EC).

According to him the rise of the Omicron variant has made the environment very different from the two previous Sarawak and Melaka polls.

"What we know is that the SOP for the Melaka and Sarawak polls was a success as there was no significant increase in the number of cases.

"But the SOP for the Johor election will be a little bit different because it comes with (the threat) of the Omicron variant," he said.

Khairy also did not rule out the possibility of an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases following the Johor election.

"However, there will be no significant rise in the number of serious cases and hospital admissions," he said.

References: