Health D-G: War on Covid-19 now on ‘new battlefield’, all Malaysians must do their part

PUTRAJAYA, May 2 — The fight against the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has now shifted to a different battlefield as the Health Ministry and government need the public to play its part in breaking the chain of transmission, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In light of the fourth phase of the movement control order (MCO) he said a new strategy is needed to empower the community to take preventive measures against the disease.

“There are two things we want the community and the individual to empower themselves in, by basically looking into their social discipline and social responsibility,” Dr Noor Hisham said during his daily press conference.

If the public is unable to deliver on these two aspects, the director-general said the fight against Covid-19 will be made all the more difficult for the next several weeks.

“If you are to compare Malaysia with other countries, the others have removed the restrictions on border control (for entering foreign citizens) while we have not. Even Malaysians coming back are placed under the compulsory 14-day quarantine, which allowed us to detect 274 Covid-19 cases.

“Rather, our border control will be further enhanced instead of being removed. Secondly the main objective of the MCO during the preceding three phases was never to end the virus’ transmission at all, but to basically flatten the curve which we have successfully done so,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham referred to the ministry’s data and said they had initially expected an exponential surge of cases by April 14, adding the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research also predicted that by April 28 the number of cases would pass 8,900. 

“It is also important to make sure we can control the disease for a longer time. Likewise when you look at dengue, it is already a part of Malaysian society.

“We have learned much from (fighting and handling) dengue, but we also need to take action from time to time. The same goes for Covid-19,” he said.

105 new cases were reported today, bringing the total number of cases to 6,176. Of the 105, 11 are import cases while 94 are local. 60 of these cases were detected in localities under the extended MCO.

No death was reported, leaving the total number of fatalities at 103 cases or 1.67 per cent of the total cases. Currently 1,747 cases are still being treated for Covid-19 in hospitals nationwide.