KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today explained that the implementation of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) was based on risk evaluation.
He said that the authorities will take five factors into account for this purpose.
“Firstly, it depends on the rate of infection. If there is a significant increase in the number of cases, especially in a short period of time. Second is based on the distribution of positive cases in a subdistrict or district.
“The authorities also take into account population density with a high number of residential areas, apartments and squatter houses. It is also based on places which draw the public, such as wholesale markets, factories, business complexes and government offices,” he said in a statement today.
“The authorities also check on the socio-demographics, whether there are foreigners and heavy movement among the locals,” he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said this was why a CMCO was enforced in Kelantan now when it had not been before.
“On November 3, Kelantan only reported eight cases in three districts. However, on November 19, the active cases in the state had increased to 73 cases and affected eight out of 10 districts in the state.
“Apart from that, there were seven clusters namely Ikhtisas, Cergas, Kube, Kaya, Mengketil, Simera dan Jalan Meruhe are still active and being monitored in the state,” he explained.
He pointed out that the Mengketil cluster alone recorded 41 cases in just five days.
“This cluster shows a high infection rate and there is a risk of uncontrolled transmission if CMCO is not implemented,” he added.
Even though CMCO will be lifted early in some states, Dr Noor Hisham said there was still a need for the CMCO in some districts assessed as having a high risk of rapid infections.
“Therefore, the community must always abide by the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the Ministry of Health and National Security Council even if some places have returned to recovery movement control order (RMCO,” he said.
Earlier today, Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that Kelantan will come under a two-week CMCO from tomorrow due to rising Covid-19 cases there.
He also announced that the CMCO would end in Johor, Kedah, Melaka and Terengganu tomorrow, ahead of the original expiry on December 9.
