Health DG: War against virus far from over

The declining number of infections in the country should not lull Malaysians into complacency about the precautions against Covid-19, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He quoted Dr Tedros Adhanom, the World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general, who said on Monday: “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over.”

Dr Noor Hisham noted that the pandemic was growing in other countries.

Thus, he said the public must continue to comply with the ministry’s Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP).

His advice came amid Malaysia recording only two more new infections in the past 24 hours.

One of them just returned from Egypt, while another case was detected at Kota Belud Hospital in Sabah during a health screening.

“Since the recovery movement control order (MCO) was enforced on June 10, there have been a total of 303 cases.

‘Looking at the daily number of cases, they are only within one or two digits.

“With most economic sectors reopening, the transmission of cases within the community is under control. This shows that the country is on the road to recovery.

“But the Covid-19 pandemic has not ended. In fact, the number of cases globally has been increasing

“Hence, the ministry is urging the public not to be complacent despite fewer Covid-19 cases in Malaysia.

“Instead, we must be more vigilant and continue to comply with the SOP and practise preventive measures at all times,” Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement yesterday.

On Monday, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that theme parks and pre-schools could resume operations from today, subject to strict compliance with the SOP.

“Considering that more sub-sectors will be reopening from July 1, it is vital that the public cooperate and adhere to the SOP so that we can break the chain of infections in Malaysia,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Cumulatively, Malaysia has 8,639 Covid-19 cases. Out of that, 8,354 patients or 96.7% have recovered.

The number of Covid-19 deaths has remained at 121 for the 16th day in a row.

There are now 164 active cases remaining at health facilities nationwide.

Four patients are being treated in the intensive care unit with one of them requiring ventilator support.