COVID-19: Smokers face greater risk of severe complications - Health D-G

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said smoking history and non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors conducted on 86 of the 115 COVID-19 deaths in Malaysia has found that 19.8 per cent (17 deaths) were among smokers.

"The analysis also found that for COVID-19 deaths with no history of chronic diseases but were smokers, the number of deaths was higher in this group compared to non-smokers (17.6 per cent compared to 12.1 per cent).

"Smoking impairs lung function, therefore making our body more susceptible to the coronavirus and other infectious diseases," he said at a COVID-19 daily press conference here.

He said the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS 2019) found that an estimated 21.3 per cent of Malaysians were smokers, and they were at higher risk of serious complications due to COVID-19 compared to non-smokers.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the anti-smoking campaign was still being carried out even during the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

"Our advice to the public is to quit smoking... if we can quit smoking, then our health will be better, for sure.

"If we look at infection among smokers, once they contracted COVID-19, we know the complications or categories will be between one to five, it is higher compared to non-smokers," he said.

He said smoking could impede lung from functioning properly and if smokers contracted the COVID-19 virus, the complications could result in death.