PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry will recommend that the education sector prolong school breaks in order to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection during the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri holiday period.
Health director-general Tan Sri Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry will be submitting the recommendation to ensure that those celebrating Aidilfitri will continue to remain at home.
"Another worry for the ministry is there will be social gatherings or relatives visitations during the Aidilfitri celebration.
"We will recommend prolonging the holidays until the end of the month for the public to continue staying at home and break the chain of infection.
"This will be presented to the National Security Council (NSC) to prevent any large gatherings (during Hari Raya)," said Dr Noor Hisham during his first press conference in more than two months.
On May 5, the Education Ministry said all schools under the ministry in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will be closed for the next two days to reduce the movement of students amid the surge in Covid-19 cases.
This meant that these schools would have an extra two days break as they would begin a weeklong vacation for Aidilfitri starting Monday.
Education Minister Datuk Dr Radiz Jidin had said that all primary and secondary schools nationwide would return to the home-based teaching and learning method (PdPR) when the schooling session resumes after the holidays in conjunction with Aidilfitri.
All schools around the country will conduct PdPR for a total of 10 days until the start of mid-year school break which will start on May 28 for schools in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, and May 29 for the other states.
The Higher Education Ministry, meanwhile, announced last month that students from higher learning institutions, except for those in Sarawak, were allowed to return home for Aidilfitri. The students, in six categories of the teaching and learning programmes, could leave from May 7 to 12 and return to campus from May 15 to 20.