Health D-G: Malaysians must embrace new normal

KUALA LUMPUR: ONE hundred days after the Movement Control Order (MCO) was first implemented, the Health Ministry is urging communities to play a bigger role to ensure the country succeeds in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysians must embrace the new normal and adhere to standard operating procedures (SOP).

“The government’s drastic decisions to limit the movement of citizens and shutting the nation’s borders were done to contain the outbreak.

“These were done to allow the ministry to increase its capacity in public health, medical labs, government health clinics and hospitals to flatten the (infection) curve,” he said today.

When the MCO began on March 18, Dr Noor Hisham said the country’s labs had a daily testing capacity of 6,210 and it had 626 ventilators.

He added that the country also had only 4,433 hospital beds and 273 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients.

He said Malaysia reached its peak on April 5, with 2,596 active cases and a fatality rate of 1.67 per cent.

“At the end of Phase Four of the MCO on May 12, the daily testing capacity saw a four-fold increase to 27,233, while the number of hospital, ICU beds and ventilators increased to 8,794, 438 and 1,097 respectively.

“Today, day 100 since the MCO was enforced, the country has the capability to perform 36,812 Covid-19 tests, six times more than before the MCO.”

He said active cases had decreased to 208, and the fatality rate had dropped to 1.4 per cent of the total number of infections.

This, he said, indicated that Malaysia was in the recovery phase.

“The success in flattening the infection curve and reducing the number of Covid-19 infections in the community is the result of everyone’s cooperation,” he said.

On daily cases, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry today recorded four new cases, bringing the tally to 8,600.

He said three out of four cases were imported infections.

“One remaining case was detected in a severe acute respiratory infection patient at Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom Hospital in Johor.

“All cases involved Malaysian citizens.”

He said 40 more people had recovered and were discharged, increasing the number of recoveries to 8,271 (96.2 per cent).

No new deaths were reported, with the death toll remaining at 121.

Source: NST