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MoH: Harder to control Covid-19 spread in Peninsular than Sabah

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry today said it was more challenging to contain the Covid-19 infection in the Peninsula compared to Sabah.

Its director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah attributed it to several factors including high density population and mobility situation in the Peninsula.

“If it is localised to a village or district, then it is easier to control. Therefore, we need to take quick action in terms of prevention and containment.

“When we look at the cases in the Peninsula, they have spread far. It is not confined to one area. When we started the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in Selangor, there were so many objections.

“Nonetheless, proactive and pre-emptive actions have been deployed despite such objections and look at the cases now.” he said at the daily Covid-19 press conference here.

He said if the ministry had not enforced the CMCO, the situation in the Peninsula would be worse than Sabah.

“For instance, if a person from Selangor travels to Johor or Melaka, they will spread the infection there.

“What we are doing now is to look at risk assessment because the virus is already in the community and the virus is not localised in one area.

“The virus is infecting those at workplaces, factories, private hospitals, public hospitals and many more,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the sporadic cases were about 50 per cent of the total infection.

“It is paramount for us to roll out pre-emptive or proactive measures now and not when districts have become red zones.

“We can protect the green zones with the CMCO,” he said, adding that Malaysia had created a benchmark in managing the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which other countries could take note.

On the Covid-19 vaccine, Dr Noor Hisham said it was still too soon to comment on when the country would procure the vaccine as the negotiation was still ongoing.

“We have a committee that is looking into it chaired by the Science, Technology and Innovation minister and the Health Minister.

“We need to look into the clinical data first. Once we have looked at it and if the data is positive and durable, then we will be looking into the logistics needed to procure the vaccine,” he said.

On a nurse who had to commute about 450 kilometres from Melaka to Johor Bahru for work, he said the ministry would look into how best to handle the matter.

He said the ministry had yet to get all the details, but it was ready to listen to what the nurse had to say and might consider a placement for her in Johor Baru.

Source: NST