Covid-19: 72 imported cases push up new cases to 94

By Xavier Kong

HEALTH director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that, of the 94 new confirmed Covid-19 cases reported on the first day of Phase Four of the Movement Control Order (MCO), 72 are imported cases from Malaysian citizens and students returning from Indonesia.

“This means there are only 22 local transmission cases,” he explained.

Today, 55 new recoveries were reported, for a total of 4,087 recoveries. The 94 new cases bring the total up to 5,945, with 1,758 active transmission cases being treated. Of these, 40 are being treated in intensive care units, and 18 of those require ventilator support. No new deaths were reported, keeping the death toll at 100.

On Influenza-like Illnesses (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI), Dr Noor Hisham said all SARI cases with lung infections at Ministry of Health (MoH) hospitals were screened for Covid-19, while ILI saw samples collected at eight locations from all cases that have symptoms, and this forms part of the surveillance for the transmission of Covid-19.

To date, a total of 6,100 samples collected through this surveillance were tested, with 71 of these cases identified as Covid-19 positive, with a majority of these coming from SARI cases. He also shared that MoH monitors the tests conducted at private sector hospitals as well, where a total of 84 cases were found from the 22,081 samples tested.

These surveillance activities will continue even after the MCO is lifted, to ensure an early warning against a fresh wave of Covid-19. Dr Noor Hisham advised Malaysians to continue adhering to the MCO and practising good hygiene and safe social distancing.

MoH is also looking into standard operating procedures for each sector, and this will be released soon, along with guidelines for solitary sports such as jogging.

The first batch of the antigen test kits from South Korea will arrive this Friday, with Sabah and Sarawak given priority from the batch of 50,000, which would allow point of care testing at Sabah and Sarawak, where there may be problems in transporting samples. Training and deployment of the test kits are scheduled for next week.

On the topic of the reopening of childcare centres, Dr Noor Hisham noted that the guidelines for these are in place, but it is up to the centres to be able to adhere to these. He noted that the government understands the need for the centres would increase following the opening of more economic sectors.

With regard to the green zones, Dr Noor Hisham noted that there are green zones that have been green for the entire duration of the MCO, and these areas are being considered for the soft landing as previously mentioned. However, he noted that the most important of the six criteria by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in these cases is community empowerment, where guidelines have to be put into place for the community, which would take “about a week” to finetune. Until then, the move for a soft landing in green zones remains a consideration with no decision made as of yet.

He reiterated that Malaysia’s healthcare system is now at a comfortable level in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, with collaboration and aid from the private sector, as well as innovations such as increasing the efficiencies of ventilators to be able to handle two patients at once instead of one at a time. Volunteers from the private sector have also served to ease the burden on the frontliners, allowing them more time to rest.

Allowing businesses to operate at 100% capacity also comes down to the ability of these businesses to adhere to the guidelines set out by the government, which includes thermal scanning and practising safe social distancing. – April 29, 2020