MoH plans to stop spread of Covid-19 among families of madrasah students

By Xavier Kong

HEALTH director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah shared that the Ministry of Health (MoH) has enacted action plans to stop the spread of Covid-19 among the families of madrasah and tahfiz students.

These include requiring tests for the students who have returned home, for students who have not returned home to present themselves for testing, and for the administrators to present information to the ministry for better efforts of targeted testing.

A total of 370 tahfiz and madrasah schools have been screened, with a total of 19,209 staff, teachers and students. Of these, 12,384 have been tested, with 635 testing positive for Covid-19. Of the 635 cases, 96 were symptomatic, while the remainder 539 were asymptomatic.

“We are concerned that there may be asymptomatic cases who bring the virus back to their families, who may be part of the high-risk segments,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also reiterated for Malaysians to follow the procedures and guidelines laid out by the ministry, that Malaysians practise social distancing and good personal hygiene, and to stay at home where possible.

Today, 70 new recoveries were reported, bringing the total number of discharged patients to 5,351. New cases confirmed were 40, with 31 of the cases identified as foreign nationals, with no imported cases reported.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases to date to 6,819, with 1,356 active transmission cases remaining. Of these, 16 are currently being treated in intensive care units, with four requiring ventilator support. Another death was also confirmed, bringing the death toll to 112.

“We have won the battle, but we have not won the war. For the new strategy that is the Conditional Movement Control Order, we need Malaysians to cooperate and follow the new standard operating procedures (SOP), so that we can bring the rate of infectivity down even further,” said Dr Noor Hisham, adding that compliance to the SOP is being monitored daily, and that foreign workers in red zones are part of the targeted groups. – May 14, 2020