Malaysia has yet to plan an exit strategy in controlling the COVID-19 outbreak despite the two-digit downward trend in the number of positive cases to date, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the Ministry of Health (MOH) would continue to monitor the development trends of COVID-19 including new clusters until the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) is scheduled to end on May 12.

"This monitoring is up to May 12. But on May 8 or 9, MOH will see a trend then to advise the Prime Minister for appropriate action, "he said at a COVID-19 daily media conference here.

Dr. Noor Hisham said, so far, the MOH had been able to control the case to two figures and hoped to continue to control and reduce the COVID-19 cases as much as possible for another week.

He said monitoring had to be done due to the existence of new clusters such as the previous construction site cluster and the security guard cluster today.

"For the security guard cluster, it was found that they lived up to 15 people in one apartment. While investigating them appropriately, we try to prevent infection from spreading among them and deterring them from living together in a congested manner, "he said.

Earlier, Dr. Noor Hisham said the MOH detected 10 positive COVID-19 cases among security guards at a shopping mall in Cheras, here, involving Nepalese (nine) and a Malaysian (one), to date.

Meanwhile, asked on the request of some quarters to reopen barber shops during the CMCO, Dr Noor Hisham confirmed that the matter had not been approved by the MOH.

He explained that this is because there were reports in Japan and the United States regarding COVID-19 infection among barbers and their clients.

"We are watching closely before we can give permission to other sectors such as hair cutting outlets to operate," he added.

-- BERNAMA