PUTRAJAYA, April 6 – Health director-general Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah has clarified that so far there has been no indication that the COVID-19 outbreak has spread through food.
He said this when commenting on public concerns that restaurant workers who provided the takeaway food service were positive for the infection.
“We have not heard that the virus is spread through food, but what is important is that if one of the workers is positive, then we need to filter out close contact at the restaurant,” he told a daily press conference here.
Earlier, it was reported that the take-home service at IKEA Tebrau, Johor was temporarily closed until it was announced that one of its employees was positive for COVID-19.
IKEA Tebrau said in a statement on its website that it was informed that a staff member was positive on April 1 and that he was working closely with the public health officer to ensure the safety of the staff and customers.
Meanwhile, Dr. Noor Hisham said the Ministry of Health (MOH) was still awaiting guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the need to wear mouth and nose masks in public places.
“However, we encourage health workers and even frontlines such as the police to wear a mouth covering.
“For the general public, if they have any symptoms, wear a mouth covering and nose. If you make it public, you may need to wear the cover, ”he said.
Sources: Bernama