M'SIA: H1N1 UNDER CONTROL, CONTINGENCY PLANS NOT NEEDED YET

KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 (Bernama) -- The spread of the Influenza A (H1N1)
virus in Malaysia is still under control and ministerial contingency plans in
the event of an uncontrollable outbreak need not be implemented as yet.

Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, in giving this assurance to
reporters at the Parliament lobby Monday, said that even though the increased
number of infected Malaysians had caused the ministry some pressure, it was
still manageable.

"Of course we have contingency plans. If it spreads within a community, we
will close all schools. We will all use our social distancing programme, namely
isolation to prevent interaction or large-scale programmes withint the
community.

"We have not resorted to this year because we can still control the
situation. If not, if there's a wide (out)break, social distancing measures will
be implemented," he said.

He said 20 new cases were reported today with four cases due to local
infection and he urged the public to impose self-quarantine should they
return from the six countries that had been identified as H1N1 high-risk
countries.

"Where previously it was confined to the Klang Valley, it has now spread
to
other states like Johor and Negeri Sembilan. This exerts pressure on us to take
more precautions," he said.

Liow said that up till now most of the cases of infection had happened
outside Malaysia and the source of origin had been identified, making it
manageable.

-- BERNAMA