PUTRAJAYA, May 23 — Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today appealed to the public to make a sacrifice this year for Hari Raya Aidilfitri by complying with the conditional movement control order (CMCO) in order to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.

"We must look after ourselves, our families, and society. To not celebrate together is one way, and God willing, we can succeed in breaking the chain,” Dr Noor Hisham said during his daily Covid-19 press conference.

He reiterated his earlier discouragement of holding traditional open houses for Hari Raya and reminded the public that per the National Security Council’s standard operating procedures (SOP) visiting family members cannot exceed 20 persons a day, depending on the residence’s size.

"Ensure that social distancing and self-hygiene is always maintained. The ministry strongly recommends the public to postpone visits to one another and avoid the customary visit to graves.

"This includes crossing state lines, which could lead to the risk of spreading Covid-19 to other zones, particularly green zones. We should be mindful of the Pengerang cluster and Rembau sub-cluster, both of which occurred due to crossing state lines and visiting relatives, respectively,” he said.

As of 12pm today, 48 new cases have been reported to the ministry, with 53 cases having since recovered and discharged from hospitals. This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia to 7,185, and the total number of recoveries to 5,912 cases, or 82.1 per cent of the total overall.

"Of the 48, four are import cases where infection came from abroad, while of the 44 domestic cases, 25 involve non-Malaysians. 21 of these cases were detected at the Immigration Department’s custody depot in Semenyih.

"Presently there are nine positive cases still being treated in Intensive Care Units, five of whom require breathing assistance. No deaths have been reported today, leaving the existing number of deaths at 115 cases or 1.6 per cent of the overall number of cases,” Dr Noor Hisham said.