Follow SOP to end Covid-19 pandemic, says Health DG

By Xavier Kong

HEALTH director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah again called for Malaysians to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP) and guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health (MoH) if Malaysia is to have any chance of ending the transmission of Covid-19.

He warned that, should Malaysians continue to flout the SOP and guidelines, the number of confirmed cases will spike upwards again.

A total of 58 recoveries were reported today, bringing the total number of discharged patients to 5,281. Confirmed new cases amounted to 37, of which 21 of these are foreign nationals, and four are imported cases. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 6,779.

Active transmission cases stand at 1,387, of which 16 are being treated in intensive care units, while four require ventilator support. Two new deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 111.

With regard to the issue of allowing gatherings of up to 20 people to celebrate Hari Raya, where there are concerns that this will become a transmission vector for Covid-19, Dr Noor Hisham shared that the number is actually relative, where the important factor is safe social distancing, good personal hygiene, and avoiding close contact communication.

The number actually takes into account larger families, but he stressed again that the important factor is to adhere to the SOP. He called for Malaysians to cooperate and reduce the infectivity of the virus, and to keep their guard up despite the loosened restrictions of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

He also shared that, if the infectivity score should rise past 1.6, it would mean Malaysia is back to a warning stage with an exponential rise in cases projected for mid-June should Malaysians ignore SOP and guidelines.

Dr Noor Hisham referred to the implementation of the first phase of the Movement Control Order (MCO), noting that while it was considered a drastic move then, the results today show that it was the correct move, considering the number of new confirmed cases daily has dropped to the double digits.

“Whether or not we will return to an MCO state depends on Malaysians. The same goes for whether or not the number of cases will rise again, it depends on Malaysians. As such, MoH calls for Malaysians to adhere to the SOP and guidelines that have been issued by the ministry,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also shared that May 18 would be the day to see the efficacy of the CMCO, as that would mark the end of the first two-week incubation time-frame for Covid-19. Should the numbers remain low, he assured the public that more economic sectors would open in stages. – May 13, 2020