M’sia can record zero daily Covid-19 cases if people follow SOPs

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia can maintain zero daily Covid-19 transmission for the next 28 consecutive days, but only if people continue to adhere with the guidelines set by the authorities.

This follows the encouraging development recorded by the Health Ministry today, which only logged one new infection – the lowest since the second wave of the pandemic in the country.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the new infection reported to the ministry involved an imported case of a Malaysian returning home from Turkey.

“Today is a good start in which the country recorded zero (daily) local transmission. What is important to us right now is see if we can maintain and sustain this for the next 28 days.

“If the people continue to adhere with the standard operating procedures (SOPs), which are in place, I am sure that we can achieve zero cases for the next 28 days,” said Dr Noor Hisham during his press briefings on Covid-19 here today.

He said this in response to a question if the ministry would consider a proposal for the on-going Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), scheduled to end on Aug 31, to be lifted early following such encouraging development.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the ministry aimed to open more sectors following the implementation of the RMCO, which came into force on June 10.

“The ministry will continue keeping a close watch on the local Covid-19 transmission cases in the country,” he said.

Apart from continuous monitoring, screening and surveillance of infectious disease and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases at health facilities nationwide, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry would maintain conducting pre-surgery Covid-19 testing and screening.

He described the preoperative Covid-19 testing and screening as good indicator to reflect community transmission related to the virus.

“At the moment, the community transmission that has been detected by the ministry via preoperative testing stood at 0.1 per cent.

“The ministry will continue conducting surveillance as well as boosting capacity at our sentinel clinics and hospitals,” he said.

Source: NST