By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, March 30: The Health Ministry said it is too early to call the end of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in Malaysia.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah ruled out that the coronavirus curve is flattening in the country, adding that the situation is currently manageable between 150 to 200 positive cases daily.
“At the moment, the number of positive cases are quite stable between 150 and 200 cases. That’s because we have active case detection.
“We do not have the exponential spike yet. What we fear is the exponential spike of 900 to 1,000 cases. Another one was because of imported cases,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry will continue to conduct active case detection and identify the targeted group for Covid-19 screening test.
The ministry also warned of Malaysians returning back from overseas who might add to the number of positive cases. Information gathered from the Immigration Department has shown that before the movement control order (MCO) was implemented, there were 10,000 Malaysians who came back from overseas.
Dr Noor Hisham said after the MCO, there were about 4,000 people who had returned from overseas. He advised those who has history of travelling overseas to perform a 14-day self-quarantine at home.
On another note, he added that the ministry has conducted Covid-19 screening test for 18,721 people linked to the tabligh gathering in Sri Petaling cluster, including up to fifth generations.
He said 14,111 samples have been taken, while the positive ones were 1,290, negative (8,083) and 4,738 awaiting results.
He advised the public to practice social discipline by staying at home for the next two weeks and adopt good personal hygiene, if Malaysia wants to flatten the curve and break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.
He pointed out that the period of MCO was extended from March 31 to April 14 to avoid the exponential spike in Covid-19 cases. — DayakDaily
