MOH mulls allowing residents associations to guard communities against Covid-19

CORONAVIRUS | The Health Ministry is looking into empowering residents associations to protect their community from Covid-19 infection risks.

According to Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, this was similar to the model of longhouses in Sarawak where community leaders had managed to prevent the spread of the virus by blocking high-risk people from entering the area.

He said that if such measures worked successfully to break the chain of the Covid-19 infection, authorities may review the way they are enforcing the movement control order (MCO) like what is being done today.

"The enhanced MCO implemented in three areas now is only to assist MOH in conducting active detection.

"But now we are looking into the possibility of empowering our community, like condominium committees to safeguard their area.

"This like what I have mentioned before in the Orang Asli case, where they ensure that high-risk groups do not come into their community. It means that you are protecting your green area," he said.

Longhouses as role models

He was answering a reporter's question on whether there is the need to widen the use of Enforced MCO at areas where Health Ministry detects a high number of Covid-19 cases.

Noor Hisham had previously told the media about the success story of several longhouses, which have so far managed to maintain zero cases of the disease.

He said the community at the longhouses were doing a good job to protect their people from the virus.

"If that is the case, probably we can review how we are doing the MCO," Noor Hisham said on his aim for the initiative.

Currently, under MCO, the government is prohibiting members of the public from venturing outside their residence except to purchase daily essentials and to seek medical treatment.

In several areas, the government has implemented the Enhanced MCO where they have detected a sudden surge in the number of infections.

Under the EMCO, the residents are not allowed to leave their house at all for 14 days, while health workers conduct house-to-house visits to test and detect Covid-19 cases.

So far, three areas have been put under EMCO, namely Kampung Dato' Ibrahim Majid and Bandar Baharu Dato' Ibrahim Majid in Kluang, Johor; seven villages in Sungai Lui in Hulu Langat, Selangor; and Menara One City Condominium in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Noor Hisham, the EMCO has allowed MOH to detect more cases and isolate them for treatment.

To date, there are a total of 170 cases tested positive at the two villages in Kluang, while in Sungai Lui, the number of cases have risen to 339 today.

Noor Hisham said that at Menara One City Condominium, there are a total of 24 positive cases detected there so far.

Tighter border security

Meanwhile, the MOH top officer was also asked about Indonesia, which is feared to be another epicentre of Covid-19 infection.

Noor Hisham said the concern that Indonesian immigrants might bring the virus with them when they enter Malaysia illegally had been discussed by the government last week.

"We are working together with the Armed Forces, and brought up this issue last week during the National Security Council meeting.

"We have to strengthen our border and our main entry points, airports. And the Armed Forces have promised us that security at all the entry points has been strengthened," he said.

On overseas returnees, Noor Hisham said that since April 3, there were 25,020 Malaysians recorded to have returned to the country from overseas.

He said all of them have been screened and placed in isolation at hotels and quarantine centres, as per government order.

During the screening process, Noor Hisham said they found 18 of the returnees having symptoms including fever.

"They are being tested for Covid-19 and we have isolated them, and put them in hospital." - Mkini