MOH steps up enforcement as Covid-19 cases rise

The Health Ministry is stepping up its enforcement efforts nationwide in response to an uptick in Covid-19 cases, said its director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the ministry’s inspectorate and legislative sector has issued a total of 280 compounds and closed 63 premises over the one-week period from Nov 7 to Nov 13.

This is for various Covid-19 standard operating procedure violations such as failure to wear a face mask or maintain physical distancing, failure to provide equipment for recording personal details, and failure to check into a premise using MySejahtera or other means.

Out of the 280 compounds, 251 were issued to individuals and 29 were issued to corporate entities.

After nearly two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, Noor Hisham said people should already be familiar with the precautions needed to prevent the spread of the disease.

These practices such as enduring masks are always worn properly and avoiding crowded places should be ingrained to coexist safely with the virus.

“A high degree of personal discipline is very much needed to ensure there are no more waves, surges and increase in cases,” he said.

He said during the week from Nov 7 to 13, the number of active Covid-19 cases has declined for the 10th consecutive week, and the number of Covid-19 deaths and ICU admissions has declined as well.

However, the number of new cases has increased by 11 percent compared to the week before from 35,303 cases during the 44th epidemiological week to 39,181 during the 45th epidemiological week.

The R-number for Covid-19 has also risen above 1.00, which indicates an outbreak that is accelerating its growth.

The number of Covid-19 patients in Stage 1 and 2 severity remains steady, but those in Stage 3, 4 and 5 are increasing except in Perlis, Perak, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, and Johor.

Stage 1 refers to asymptomatic patients while Stage 2 refers to those with mild symptoms. Stage 3 and 4 patients have both developed pneumonia, but Stage 4 would require supplemental oxygen to breathe.

Stage 5 patients are cases where the disease has affected other organs and typically require ICU admission or even mechanical ventilation.

Meanwhile, the number of new Covid-19 clusters in workplaces and educational institutions have increased even though the overall number of clusters is in decline.

There are 24 new workplace clusters during the 45th week compared to 18 in the week before, and 11 new educational institution clusters compared to seven in the week before.

Noor Hisham attributed this to the shift into Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan, which allows more workplaces and schools to resume in-person operations.

“The dominance of workplace clusters is expected to continue to increase if employers do not implement precautionary measures on their workers. It is the responsibility of employers to ensure prevention measures outlined in SOPs are fully practised to prevent new workplace clusters […]

“The government has high hopes that educators would play their role in helping to reduce Covid-19 infection and ensure their students can follow all prevention measures while at the education institutions,” he said. - Mkini