Govt mulls next step following spike in Covid-19 cases

PUTRAJAYA: The government will be looking closely at the swift rise of the country’s Covid-19 situation before deciding whether closing businesses and social sectors is needed.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said striking the right balance between health and economy was important in making decisions relating to the pandemic.

“We are under the recovery movement control order, which means we allow economic, sports, social and education sectors to operate.

“Currently, things are under control and we haven’t made any decision to change this.

“We are watching the situation closely. If the cases spread faster, maybe we will have to look at what our next actions are.

“But striking the right balance between health and economy is important,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Dr Noor Hisham, however, expressed confidence that the country would be able to overcome the current wave of Covid-19, which was seeing a sharp spike in cases.

“Can we contain this? At the moment we can. We need to do whatever we did in March and April when we flattened the curve with public health intervention and each individual complying to the ministry’s SOP (standard operating procedures).

“We cannot let our guard down, even though we are fatigued, as there is no fatigue for the virus,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

“This rising trend is what the Health Ministry is worried about and why we remind everyone daily as it is definitely in line with the surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths globally.

“Up until today 34.2 million cases have been recorded globally and the amount of daily recorded cases show an increase of around 309,000 cases compared to 302,000 cases previously,” he said

Dr Noor Hisham said the Ministry has always worked with other agencies to carry out this responsibility but they cannot do it alone.