PUTRAJAYA, April 20 — Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today that his ministry hopes Malaysia will reach single-digit new Covid-19 cases next week, but breaking the chain on infection may take between three and six month.
He also said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted that Malaysia will still be at “war” with Covid-19 even until next year, unless vaccines for the coronavirus is found and made available to the public.
In the meantime, he said the government will continue to monitor, research and try to minimise infections inside the community, such as the influenza-like illnesses (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), which can be used to plan what needs to be done.
“WHO anticipated that we might have to go to war [against Covid-19) until the next year. The problem is how to plan and strategise until the next year.
“What is important today is we may be able to reduce the numbers of cases, but not end [the infection],” he said in his daily briefing.
Noor Hisham explained that the ILI/SARI-based cases in Covid-19 is a good indication on the rate of infection amongst the community and can be used to monitor and plan on the country’s public health strategy.
He said that the Ministry of Health might need to ensure that the people are still following public health advisory even when the movement control order (MCO) ends as long as the vaccine is not found.
“If the ILI and SARI cases keep increasing, it means the virus is still inside the community. Now we see it’s reducing. If it is reducing that means it is a good indication to plan what our action is for the future.
“From the cases that we’ve researched, we need to see what needs to be done after the MCO is ended. Maybe we can see different activities and norms that need to be done as long as there’s no vaccine found,” he said
Dr Noor Hisham said the current mission now is to bring down daily Covid-19 cases to the single digits after Malaysia recorded under 100 new cases for the fourth consecutive day since the movement control order (MCO) was announced on March 18.
The country today reported a significantly low number of new cases at 36 with no fatalities.
“But we want to achieve single digits. Maybe we can achieve this within one week.
“All of us need to work together and make sure we continue to stay home even when the MCO has been lifted,” he said.
However, Noor Hisham warns the people not to rejoice quite yet as there need to be a clear exit strategy post MCO period.
The popular civil servant said a “soft landing” approach would mean social distancing rules and bans on large gatherings were likely to continue for the rest of the year.
“Even after we have lifted the MCO, we will continue advising the people to stay at home if you do not need to go out of the house. That is the principle.
“We are definitely looking at an exit strategy. Perhaps when we start (the removal of MCO), it must be a soft landing.
“What we will return to is not the norm, but a new norm.
“We may take some time, maybe three or six months. Our policies in terms of public gathering must change. Social distancing must remain, and we will continue reminding people to wash hands and to stay at home,” he said.
