Health DG: Covid-19 exit plan must be 'soft landing' into 'new normal'

CORONAVIRUS | The exit plan for the movement control order (MCO) must be a “soft landing” in phases so that Malaysia can enter into a “new normal” while still continuing to break the transmission chain of Covid-19, said Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“Definitely we are looking into the exit strategy, we are planning now and looking at how we can mitigate the situation.

“So that when we start, it must be a soft landing in terms of looking into the next two weeks, and then another two weeks, how we can slowly but surely make sure that we can actually return back to, not the norm, but the new norm.

“Return back to a new norm for us to make sure we can continue to stop this or to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission,” Noor Hisham (above) said in a press conference at the Health Ministry today.

He also stressed that even if the MCO is lifted, as long as a vaccine has not been discovered for Covid-19, everyone must change their lifestyles and habits in order to continue with the prevention strategy. 

“The problem now is we can decrease the number of cases, but we cannot end it.

“As long as we do not have a vaccine, we need to use the prevention strategy.

“That means the way we live and how we act have to change, even if we do not have MCO. We need to look at an exit strategy that can control and prevent the Covid-19,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it would require about one to one and a half year before a vaccine can be discovered for Covid-19, so it has predicted that this “war” against the infection might last till next year.

As such, Noor Hisham said a version of the MCO might last anywhere between three to six months in Malaysia.

“We may take some time, maybe three months, maybe six months.

“Our policies must change, in terms of looking into no public gathering, for example, and social distancing and continuously remind the public to wash their hands and more importantly to stay at home if you do not have any business out in public,” he said.

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- Mkini