Daily Covid 19 Cases Will Keep Increasing Says Noor Hisham

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Health DG Dr Noor Hisham says the ministry will monitor developments over the next few days, before deciding on extending the MCO.PUTRAJAYA: The health ministry has predicted that Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases will continue increasing over the next few days, based on the country’s current infection rate (called R0, or R-nought) of 1.16.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this was because the recent implementation of the movement control order (MCO) had yet to take effect.
“In one to two weeks’ time, we hope the cases will stabilise and maintain at around 3,000 (per day), before it decreases and we see the impact of the MCO,” he said at a press conference today.
“The cases that have been recorded in the last two to three days was due to the spread of infections prior to the MCO.”
He added that the ministry would monitor new developments over the next few days, before deciding on possibly extending the MCO or tightening the current rules.
Six states and three federal territories are currently under the MCO. They are Selangor, Johor, Penang, Kelantan, Melaka, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.
However, senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced today that all other states in the peninsula – Kedah, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Terengganu and Perlis – are also coming under the MCO with effect from this Friday, Jan 22.
Given the surge of Covid-19 infections in Peninsular Malaysia, Noor Hisham said it was only fair to place the entire country, except for Sarawak, under a proper lockdown.
He added that the ministry was in the process of refining its protocol on monitoring positive cases that were self-isolating at home.
However, Noor Hisham stressed that Covid-19 patients would only be advised to isolate at home after a risk assessment was conducted by the health ministry to ensure their homes were suitable for quarantine.
“What is important is that they must comply with the standard operating procedures so that they do not infect other family members.
“They should stay in their own rooms, if possible, for 10 days and they must log into the MySejahtera application every day, in order for us to monitor their progress at home,” he said.
The health ministry currently requires people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and who have no symptoms or light symptoms to undergo home quarantine for 10 days.
Other criteria that must be met are that the patients do not belong to any high-risk group, have someone to look after them, and live in a place that allows them to be isolated from others in the home. - FMT

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