Businesses must compromise if cases keep rising, says health DG

 

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says Malaysia must look into work-from-home policies.

PUTRAJAYA: Business leaders were warned today of the need for compromise if Covid-19 infections continue rising. “We need to adapt to the new environment, but we haven’t,” said health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah as new Covid-19 cases topped 4,000 for the second day in a row.

“It seems that the virus is adapting faster and infecting us faster. We need to look into work-from-home policies, into the new ways of doing things.”

He said there was a need for compromise on business operations; noting that the economy was very wide.

Most potential hotspots that were identified in the National Security Council’s HIDE system involved the retail sector and restaurants, he said.

“Right now, yes they are allowed to operate but for takeaways only (in areas under MCO restrictions). This way we can limit infections in restaurants. Then, for the retail sector and malls, maybe we will only allow essential services to operate,” he said at a press conference today.

Noor Hisham also maintained that the second movement control order (MCO) enforced earlier this year, dubbed MCO 2.0, was not a failure. He said the number of cases would have reached five digits if not for MCO 2.0.

The reopening of social, education, religious and sports sectors had been the critical point; the number of cases would have dropped to double digits by May or June if health and movement rules had been followed.

However, he also acknowledged that the rise in cases was also possibly due to the new and more infectious strains that have arrived in Malaysia.

“We need to see how best to curb the infections. Some say we’ve failed. We haven’t failed but we haven’t won yet. We’ll continue to fight. But SOP compliance is number one.”

He said gatherings like weddings and even funerals should be avoided, pointing to how the Pasai cluster in Sarawak was caused by the patient travelling from Johor back to her home state after her father passed away.

Noor Hisham also said 14 clusters in April alone were found to be linked to interstate travel.

He emphasised the need for the travel ban to stay in place, especially during the Hari Raya period.

“Have an in-house Hari Raya celebration, not an open house, just like last year. Last year after Raya, there was no surge of cases, so why can’t we do it again?”

He said the health ministry would recommend that the Aidilfitri school holidays be extended to the end of the month, particularly with university students allowed to return to their hometowns for the festive season.

“This is so that we can make them stay home and break the chain of infection,” he said.

He added that premises are not allowed to turn down serving individuals who have not been vaccinated, following reports of a dialysis centre saying it would only cater to those who have been immunised.

But Noor Hisham said this could be allowed later on, once more people have been vaccinated and the nation has achieved herd immunity.

He also said the Institute for Medical Research was in the process of registering two deep saliva Covid-19 tests which may be obtained at pharmacies once registered.

However, he said proper tests must still be conducted at health institutions to confirm if a patient is Covid-19 positive, to ensure that the saliva sampling is done correctly. - FMT