MCO likely over by Chinese New Year

KUALA LUMPUR: The Movement Control Order (MCO) is expected to end by the first day of Chinese New Year followed by the implementation of Conditional MCO, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday.

Dr Noor Hisham said the CMCO is likely to be implemented for three months and the ministry hoped the movement restrictions would bring down the number of cases to double-digit levels by May.

He said it was unlikely for a “total lockdown” to be imposed beyond four weeks, as the ministry was focused on a more targeted approach to balance people’s lives and livelihoods. The current MCO came into force on Jan 12 and is scheduled to end on Feb 4.

“After the cases stabilise at around 3,000 a day, we hope to see a decrease in cases in another two weeks. If we impose the MCO for four weeks, followed by a CMCO after that, maybe we can achieve daily double-digit cases by May,” he told the media at a Covid-19 emergency briefing yesterday.

He added that the country’s current infection rate or R0 (R Naught) had improved slightly from 1.2 to 1.06 yesterday.

Dr Noor Hisham also revealed that 95 of the 135 private hospitals have agreed to assist the Health Ministry by taking in Category 3, 4 and 5 patients in their facilities.

This will bring an additional 54 ventilators and 1,351 beds, including 65 beds for intensive care into the Covid-19 healthcare system.

Although the Health Ministry’s capacity has increased, he said healthcare officials were still working to reduce the number of daily cases so the system was able to cope.

Dr Noor Hisham said discussions are being held with insurance companies and Bank Negara for patients to claim medical insurance for costs of Covid-19 treatment.

In the meantime, he said they would focus on transferring more non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals, adding that the Health Mnistry had already sent 3,800 patients for surgery in the private sector last year.

Several private hospitals in Penang have started receiving Covid-19 patients, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said yesterday.

He said the state health department was still having further discussions with other medical centres and several agencies for screening and treatment of various categories of patients.

“The state government is also looking at a new location for a low-risk treatment and quarantine centre,” he said, adding that national disaster management officials had visited the Mara excellence centre in Jawi, Seberang Perai, last week.