KUCHING, May 27: Despite the declining number of Covid-19 cases through local transmission, the Health Ministry (MOH) is concerned that there may be a sudden increase in cases following the movement of people through out-of-state, cross-country and community activities during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.
Speaking at the ministry’s daily Covid-19 media briefing in Putrajaya today, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that according to Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, it was found that 2,449,556 vehicles were inspected by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) from May 16 to date.
During the same period, 18,303 vehicles were trying to cross the state on the grounds of returning to their hometowns and kampungs and were ordered to turn back by the PDRM.
Praising PDRM for their efforts, Dr Noor Hisham pointed out that it was everyone’s collective responsibility to make every effort necessary to address and control the spread of Covid-19 infections in Malaysia.
“In the event that the public is not compliant and does not comply with the proposed standard operating procedures (SOP), MOH expects a sudden increase in Covid-19 cases that could lead to a new wave of outbreaks in our country.
“Therefore, the public should be careful and not take this situation lightly. As MOH previously announced, the battle against the Covid-19 virus has not yet ended,” he warned.
Dr Noor Hisham added that according to a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO), 5,559,130 ​​Covid-19 cases have been recorded worldwide and of these, 348,610 deaths have been reported as of May 26 this year.
He warned that the pandemic was becoming more serious and was far from over.
To date, Malaysia has contributed to 0.14 per cent of the total Covid-19 positive cases worldwide.
“Following the increase in the number of cases seen in recent days in Malaysia, it is seen that new cases have dropped to two more. Of the 15 new cases today, five cases are localized among Malaysian citizens. The increase in positive cases reported over the past few days is due to the detection of cases in some Immigration Detention Depot (DTI) and other active clusters involving non-Malaysian citizens,” he added.
This is following the government’s targeted approach in curbing the spread of the Covid-19 case.
The decline in the local contagious case is in line with the previous projection by the MoH, Dr Noor Hisham asserted, and is the result of public health actions taken over a month ago during the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and subsequently the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).
He added that the decline was also made possible by public adherence to new norms and norms, as well as established SOPs for various sectors and industries.—DayakDaily
