MOH moots RM10,000 fine for breaching disease prevention laws

The Health Ministry has proposed to increase the fine for compoundable offences under Act 342 (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988) from the current RM1,000 to RM10,000.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the revised figure has been submitted to Parliament recently and would take some time to be passed.

"The act was drafted in 1988, the RM1,000 was reasonable back then but now we need to revise it... So I leave it to the Parliamentarians to decide," he said during the special dialogue titled "Covid-19: Malaysia's Journey Towards Flattening the Curve" in conjunction with Malaysian Healthcare Conference 2020 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

At the event, Noor Hisham was conferred with the National Icon Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership in Public Health by the KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific.

Although Noor Hisham has received multiple recognitions for his contributions in the war against the COVID-19 pandemic, he said the credit should not go to himself alone but to the whole team especially Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

"One person cannot make a difference. If you want to give credit, give it to the prime minister because he made the decision, I only advised him," he said.

Meanwhile, on telemedicine, Noor Hisham said Malaysia is lacking behind in term of preparedness for the digital system healthcare.

"Only during the crisis, we came out with MySejahtera and all the software, but not before the pandemic. Therefore, I hope in time to come we prepare all these telemedicine or information technology approaches before the pandemic or the infections.

"I hope the telemedicine innovation should be done before the pandemic. I would like to see proactive rather than reactive approach," he added.

- Bernama