KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today said the decision to lift or extend the movement control order (MCO) lies with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said the Ministry of Health (MOH) is seeking to tailor the six criteria from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and will advise the prime minister accordingly on the matter “a few days before” the end of the third phase MCO on April 28.
“We will advise the prime minister on the MCO based on our modelling, facts and figures [on Covid-19] and also based on the advisory from WHO and customise the advisory for our local needs.
“However, it’s the prime minister’s decision whether to extend or have a soft landing in the exit strategy,” he said in his daily briefing on the Covid-19 updates.
Yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said the six criteria are border control, MCO, health system, steps to protect high-risk groups, adhering to new norms and most importantly working together with the relevant authorities.
“If we open border control there are chances of imported cases to increase. This is something we learn from many countries. In fact, we need to tighten the border rather than ease the border.
“MCO helps to curb the local virus transmission. In order to review it, we must make sure the active cases are reduced. The local transmission should at least reduce from two digits to one digit. This could be done if we continue to enhance the MCO for at least another two weeks,” he said.
He also said the health care should be enhanced in terms on the availability of the labs and kits to test the infection and also hospitals and health staffs to treat the patients.
Dr Noor Hisham also said the authorities have to come up with a plan to protect the high-risk group, these include elderly citizens, people with disabilities, children and those undergoing health treatment, before lifting the MCO
“Apart from that, the public must make sure to adhere to the new norm after MCO. There should be no public gathering, practice social distancing and protect ourselves by wearing masks and frequently wash hands or use hand sanitisers,” he said.
Lastly, he said that the community empowerment is important where all the green zones, whether if it is states, districts or sub-districts, need to be protected before lifting the MCO.
Yesterday, Singapore extended its partial lockdown called “the circuit breaker”, to minimise movement of its citizens, for four more weeks until June 1.
