KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — The drastic rise of new Covid-19 cases since April has greatly stressed the country’s health services, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Therefore, he is urging Malaysians to practise self-discipline, especially during the movement control order (MCO) in an effort to break the chain of infections.

"It is our shared responsibility to break the chain of Covid-19 infections and Malaysians are the most important frontline currently. We have no choice, kita mesti jaga kita!” he said in a statement regarding Covid-19 developments today.

Dr Noor Hisham said as Malaysia is still recording daily Covid-19 cases of over four digits with active cases exceeding 40,000, most government and private hospitals, including Covid-19 quarantine and low risk treatment centres throughout the country have almost reached maximum capacity.

"What is even more worrying is that there are now more cases requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and respiratory support in the past few weeks.

"At the same time, the number of daily deaths reported to the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) is increasing daily,” he said.

He explained that the Health Ministry had expected a jump in daily Covid-19 cases as what happened overseas following the spread of new Covid-19 variants, including several Variants of Concern (VOC) in communities with a higher rate of infection and mortality rate.

As such, he expressed hope that the public would practice self-discipline, especially where their movements are concerned, and to stay home and not go out unless necessary, in addition to complying with the standard operating procedure (SOP) set.

"Employers are also encouraged to allow employees to work from home and to limit the number of employees in their office at any one time,” he added. — Bernama