There is a possibility that Malaysia is able to break the COVID-19 chain of infection without the use of vaccines.

However, Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said strict public health guidelines must be adhered to by the people.

He cited examples of infections involving Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and MERS-CoV's Middle East Coronary Respiratory Virus Syndrome which has no vaccines until today.

“To date, SARS and MERS-CoV do not have vaccines… but by using the public health action method, we could contain SARS and MERS-CoV in our country without the use of vaccines.

"So, there is a possibility, without the use of vaccines, if all of us adhere to the guidelines and adhere to public health recommendations, we can also break the COVID19 infection without a vaccine.

"If we look at SARS, it was (broken) without a vaccine, we could break the SARS infection, we could also break the MERS-CoV infection," he told reporters here today.