Regime change didn't disrupt Covid-19 response - Health DG

CORONAVIRUS | The country’s Covid-19 response was not adversely affected by the change in government, says Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In a talk show last night, he thanked Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for taking his advice on how to stem the virus outbreak.

A guest on the inaugural Temu Minda segment broadcast on Facebook and by Bernama TV last night, Noor Hisham shared how he had forecast the Sri Petaling cluster in early March, when he was asked by Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah if the regime change had disrupted his job.

“No. Even though there was a change of government, we were still able to carry out our duties, which were to monitor data, look at our strategic planning and do what we needed to do to control and stop the spread of Covid-19,” Noor Hisham answered.

Elaborating, he said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had sought his advice on tackling the pandemic during the premier’s first day in office.

“What is important is we managed to convince the PM to take the unprecedented action of using Act 342 (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988).

“I would like to thank the PM for listening to what we had to say,” he said.

Noor Hisham also thanked Muhyiddin for agreeing to implement the movement control order (MCO) on March 18, even though nations in the region had yet to announce similar movement restriction rules at the time.

“We were the first and the fastest in doing that. I believe the move helped to flatten the curve,” he said.

Banning Malaysians from travelling abroad and conducting active case detection when positive cases were found were two decisions that helped contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country, he said.

Isolating all Covid-19 patients and treating them in hospitals had also contributed to better management of the outbreak, Noor Hisham added.

Tabligh event caused the spike in Covid-19 cases

Covid-19 cases in Malaysia began spiking in mid-March following an outbreak detected among participants of a mass tabligh event that was held at Masjid Sri Petaling in Kuala Lumpur from Feb 27 to March 3.

As of June 3, the cluster accounted for 3,373 coronavirus patients, or 42.3 percent of the total number of cases in the country. Infections have spread to five generations of patients and 33 people from the cluster have died.

On Feb 24, the Pakatan Harapan government collapsed when (then) prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned.

This left Malaysia without a cabinet for a week.

The political crisis eventually saw Bersatu quitting the Harapan coalition and forming an alliance named Perikatan Nasional with BN, PAS, GPS, STAR and PBS.

Dubbed the “Sheraton Move”, the coup culminated in Bersatu president Muhyiddin being sworn in as Mahathir’s successor on March 1.

The foreign minister in the previous administration, Saifuddin quit Harapan component party PKR to join the new government. - Mkini