Malaysia is behind by a week in its Covid-19 target

CORONAVIRUS | The Health Ministry missed by a week its target to achieve single digits in the number of new Covid-19 cases, says Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He told a press conference today that they are now hoping to reach the target by this May 12.

"Now we have been able to lower the number of new cases to only two digits a day. If we look at our model, we have been left behind for about a week.

"So now we are going to extend it to maybe this May 12 to reach (lower) two digits or single-digit cases.

"But what is important is that the number of cases is under control. So that our healthcare facilities can cope with the number of cases," he said in response to a question about MOH's projection earlier that Malaysia would see single-digit daily new cases beginning May 5 (yesterday).

Noor Hisham stressed that efforts done under the first three phases of movement control order (MCO) have led to today's success which saw a decline in the number of patients in hospital wards, including those who need ventilators at intensive care units.

Elaborating further, he told the media that Malaysia has reached its objective in enforcing the three phases of the MCO which was to flatten the curve in the number of daily new cases.

However, according to him, for the MCO to be continued further after the target has been met would be too costly.

"I was informed that the cost was very high, that we lose about RM2.5 billion a day during the MCO.

"But now the main target has been achieved, which is to flatten the curve from triple digits to only two digits daily. If we look at MCO Phase 3, we have managed to get two digits recorded for 13 days from the total 14 days period," he said.

Under the conditional MCO phases which started on Monday, Noor Hisham said the strategy now has changed to urging the people to stay at home if they do not have anything important that would need them to venture outside.

Compliance to the MCO and standard operating procedures that have been set by the MOH was also important to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the community, he added.

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah

"This approach has already been used in Taiwan and South Korea and they have succeeded (in controlling the spread of the virus). And we understand that Vietnam has also started to use the conditional MCO approach instead of full MCO.

"Why could they pull this off without affecting their economy? Maybe one of the reasons these countries made it was because they have gone through wars and they know that it is important to comply with SOPs for their survival," he said.

Asked on MOH's use of the antigen rapid test kit that it purchased from a South Korean company, Noor Hisham said they were going to evaluate the equipment before deciding whether to order more for future use.

So far, the ministry has received 50,000 units and expects to get 50,000 more this weekend. Another 100,000 units would arrive next week.

"We will see from the first 50,000 and study the data. If it is good, and its accuracy is good, maybe we will order more. So let us do the evaluation first. And once we have the data, we will inform everyone," he said.

Noor Hisham also spoke about the possibility of young patients dying from Covid-19 albeit not having any other comorbidities.

Answering a reporter's question on yesterday's fatal case involving a 47-year-old patient, he said complications can still happen to a patient when Covid-19 enters the body regardless of age.

One of the complications was blood-clotting caused by chemicals produced by the body in reaction to Covid-19, like cytokines.

"This makes the blood to thicken, and thus the blood would clot quicker (than normal). Secondly, the virus would attack the wall of blood vessels and cause thrombosis, which happened to the patient who spent 46 days in the ICU.

"The patient had a thrombosis in his main blood vessels and several other blood vessels. This was a complication, and when a blood clot and thrombosis happens in the head, it can cause a stroke, or a heart attack if it happens at the heart," he said.

According to Noor Hisham, such complications in young Covid-19 patients have been reported worldwide. - Mkini