KUCHING, May 7: The Ministry of Health (MoH) is yet to plan for the exit strategy for Movement Control Order (MCO) which will end on May 12.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the health ministry is monitoring the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) situation in the country daily and is following the six criterias outlined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to exit MCO.
“MoH monitors the Covid-19 situation daily and our approach follows the guidelines set by the WHO.
“The WHO has outlined six criterias as an exit strategy.
“But, we (MoH) have yet to plan for the exit strategy (of MCO).
“Nonetheless, we are using the six criterias set by the WHO as guidelines to exit MCO,” Dr Noor Hisham said during the national Covid-19 updates today in Putrajaya when asked by reporters whether there are any specific standard operating procedures (SOPs) being laid out by the health ministry to the public such as whether there is social distancing being implemented for the use of public toilet upon MCO is lifted.
In spite of that, he advises the public to practice good personal hygiene and refrain from using the public toilet if it is dirty.
Dr Noor Hisham opined that if citizens is able to abide by the SOPs and guidelines set by MoH, the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia will be under control.
He observed that there were some countries such as Taiwan and South Korea which were successful in containing Covid-19 using SOPs and social distancing without implementing MCO.
Thus, he urges Malaysians to have social discipline and practice good hygiene as Covid-19 has the potential to be transmitted within a community.
On another note, Dr Noor Hisham observed that the number of positive cases has been on the downtrend and the positive cases recorded in the past few days were within the range of double digits.
Hence, he believed that within one week, MoH is able to control Covid-19 in Malaysia and reduce the number of positive cases further.
Dr Noor Hisham hoped that by tomorrow (May 8) and the day after (May 9), MoH is able to capture the latest trend of Covid-19 in Malaysia based on the daily updates of positive cases.
Subsequently, he disclosed that the health ministry will advise Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to take the appropriate action.
In the meantime, Dr Noor Hisham revealed that Malaysia recorded 39 new Covid-19 cases with no casualty today.
He disclosed that out of the 39 cases, nine cases were locals and 30 cases involved foreigners.
There was one imported case and 38 cases involved local transmission.
With the additional positive cases, the number of cumulative Covid-19 positive cases in the country rose to 6,467 cases.
Dr Noor Hisham asserted that Covid-19 active cases in Malaysia as of May 7 stood at 1,584. — DayakDaily
