Health Ministry Cmco Not Just For Red Zones Depends On Risk Assessment

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The Health Ministry will no longer wait for an area to become a Covid-19 red zone before advising the government to impose a conditional movement control order (CMCO).
According to the ministry's director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, they would instead rely on risk assessment by health experts to determine whether there is the need to impose movement controls on a location that has a Covid-19 outbreak.
"We have now introduced another colour code, which is orange zone. So, the Health Ministry is no longer waiting for an area to turn into a red zone to declare CMCO.
"Now, every time an area reaches over 21 cases, we will initiate a risk assessment. If the assessment reveals that (the area) has high risk, then we will impose CMCO on the orange zone," he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.
Noor Hisham was referring to the colour codes which the ministry had been using to differentiate the level of outbreak according to zones in every state.
A green zone is used to signify a location which has zero active cases, yellow for between one and 20 cases, orange for 21 to 40, and red for above 40.
Previously, the health authorities only used three colour codes, which were green, yellow, and red.
Noor Hisham said imposing CMCO on an area before it turned into a red zone will be taken as a proactive measure.
He gave examples of two sub-districts in Perak and Terengganu, which would be placed under CMCO for 14 days starting this Saturday (Nov 7).
They are the Parit Buntar sub-district in Perak, which has 12 active cases as of Tuesday (Nov 2), and the Rasau sub-district in Terengganu which recorded 25 active cases as of Wednesday (Nov 3).
"For the Rasau sub-district in Terengganu, we saw that there is an active infection cluster which has a high infectivity rate.
"So, we impose CMCO even though it has yet to reach the stage of a red zone. This is the same case with Parit Buntar," he said.


'Balik kampung' nurse infected family members
On a related matter, Noor Hisham (photo) confirmed that four individuals from a family in Kelantan had been infected by Covid-19 as a result of inter-state travel by another family member, who came from Selangor.
He said this when asked by a journalist about the incident, which involved a private hospital nurse who returned to her hometown last month before returning to Selangor where she tested positive for the coronavirus.
"This is why we always advise those who are in red zones to stay put and not return to their hometowns. If they do this, they risk spreading Covid-19 to their family members.
"This case is true, the individual had returned to her hometown in Kelantan and infected four others, all her family members.
"So far, we have screened 127 individuals, including 40 of the nurse's colleagues, and 87 of her friends and family members," Noor Hisham said.
For the record, Selangor is one of the states which are now under CMCO, after registering a huge number of positive cases since the country was hit by the Covid-19 third wave in September.
The director-general said those who are in red zones should not travel outside, even between districts, so as to not risk spreading the virus to other locations.
This includes those who do not have any symptoms, he said, as between 60 and 70 percent of positive cases are asymptomatic.
Earlier today, Malaysiakini reported that the case in Kelantan included a 22-day-old newborn and a 75-year-old woman who were infected by Covid-19, among others. - Mkini

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