PUTRAJAYA, Oct 2 — Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today urged all Malaysians to continue to be vigilant and keep to the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) to control the contagion.

He said the fast spread of the virus in Sabah resulting in today’s new high of 287 cases should be a lesson for the rest of the country to abide by the rules.

"We have won several battles during the initial MCO, conditional MCO and now we are fighting the virus under the recovery MCO.

"If you want to win the battle and not have cases in three consecutive days,  if you want to see that result, we have to comply to the SOPs that have been set,” he told a press conference here after announcing 287 cases, the highest number of new Covid-19 infections in a single day.

Dr Noor Hisham was responding to reporters’ questions regarding the high infection rate and the availability of vaccination.

"Most importantly we must comply to the SOPs.  

"The virus still has the possibility of spreading and that’s why we need to ensure significant physical distancing, not just wearing face masks and using hand sanitiser. 

"Whether we can break this chain of infection it’s all up to us, be it the public and everyone in this room,” he said. 

He added that while human beings, including all the health ministry staff who have been fighting the virus since March, may be experiencing fatigue, but the virus does not experience fatigue.

"The moment we let our guard down, like in Sabah as an example, this is what happens.

"Learn from this lesson so that it does not happen again,” he said. 

He added that because there is no vaccine at the moment, what the country can do is to abide by SOPs just as it did during the first few MCO stages in March, April and May.

"We are not blaming but reminding.

"If you don’t have anything urgent to attend to, don’t go out,” he added.