KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia must have a blueprint for navigating life with Covid-19 before the Health Ministry could safely recommend ending the movement control order.
The Health director-general also said active Covid-19 infections must have been brought down further before this could happen.
When asked if today’s new low of 69 cases meant Malaysia has successfully contained the local Covid-19 outbreak, he said it appeared so but needed further evidence to be sure.
“What is important is if we are looking at ending the MCO, we must have an exit strategy, and among our indicators is the reduction in cases that are still being treated, which is the number of cases still able to infect others or still with a high level of infectiousness.
“If the number of cases reduces further, it will mean we have a reduction in the communal spread of the infection between people,” he said during the MOH daily Covid-19 press conference.
Another indicator for the ministry, he said, was the number of positive patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARIs).
“If we see, through our screenings and monitoring, that the number of SARI and ILI cases are getting less, that might be another indicator for us to advise the National Security Council to end the MCO.
Dr Noor Hisham also said areas with existing clusters would be monitored to see whether the situation improves, then pointing out how these high-risk areas would ultimately receive better and more focused attention if numbers of infections continued to dive.
“When the number of cases reduces, the control and containment efforts are better, and it would be easier for MOH to focus on high-risk areas, locations, and groups.
“If we can reduce the number of infected cases to fewer than 1,000 or even fewer than 500 cases, it would mean we are able to focus our attention on the clusters which are contributing to the infectivity of cases.
“If we can contain the infectivity of these cases, it will mean no more positive cases within the community; and if there are no positive cases in the community, this means there is no more communal spreading of the virus.
Dr Noor Hisham earlier announced a total of only 69 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours as of noon today, bringing the cumulative number of local infections to 5,251.
However, a total of 2,967 patients or 56.5 of infections have recovered and discharged, leaving only 2,198 active cases still receiving treatment, with 86 deaths.
