PUTRAJAYA, March 31 — Malaysians must work together and practise social discipline in order to flatten the Covid-19 infection curve, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said that in the past two weeks Malaysia had recorded around 150 to 200 positive Covid-19 cases daily and the Health Ministry (MOH) had been monitoring the trend closely to ensure there is no exponential spike.
“Now we have completed two weeks, so another two weeks to go. It is up to us and if all of us come together and we practise and embrace (the advice) that you stay at home, and we, MOH, will continue our public health activity like active case detection, increase testing, finding targeted groups and isolate them early, then we can actually break the chain of Covid-19 transmission in this country.
“So the next two weeks is all up to you and me; if we can all have a social discipline, I am sure that we can actually flatten the curve to avoid the exponential spike. If not, we may see a surge in Covid-19 positive cases in mid-April like (that) predicted by JP Morgan and the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research,” he said at a press conference on Covid-19 here yesterday.
Dr Noor Hisham said that thanks to MOH’s active case detection, Malaysia had not recorded any exponential spike-like 900 to 1,000 cases in one day.
“That means we continue to go to the community identified as a high-risk group through a targeted approach and then test them. There will be some cases that will be detected as positive; our detection of positives is about eight per cent,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham also urged all Malaysians returning from overseas to home-quarantine for 14 days.
“We fear that the second wave is all imported cases. Malaysians coming back from overseas, that is the group that we are worried about as we fear they may bring back the Covid-19.
“Although they are negative, we still have to quarantine them for 14 days. Those who are positive we isolate them in our hospitals,” he said.
He said MOH was aware that some Malaysians who returned from overseas broke the home quarantine rule.
When asked about the possibility of the MCO being extended until Ramadan, he said it was too early to make any conclusions now.
“We will only know after the first week of April. If we continue to flatten the curve or there is no exponential increase, then I think we can safely make a decision.
“In terms of the Ramadan bazaars, they need to follow MOH standard operating procedure or guidelines and have to take all precautionary measures to break the Covid-19 infection chain,” he added.
Asked on calls for the imposition of enhanced movement control order (EMCO) in red zones, he said this would be done if there is a rapid increase in positive cases in these areas.
The government enforced the EMCO in the area from Batu 21 to Batu 24 Sungai Lui, Hulu Langat, Selangor, yesterday, the second area to be placed under such restrictions after Simpang Renggam, Johor where Kampung Dato’ Ibrahim Majid and Bandar Baharu Dato’ Ibrahim Majid were subjected to similar curbs for 14 days beginning Friday.
— Bernama
