COVID-19 | Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah denied that he was manipulating or inflating the number of daily cases after Malaysia recorded its first four-figure daily number of news Covid-19 cases last Saturday, with 1,228 cases.
“We collect the data every day up to 12pm using the public healthcare information system, which is the system we have where each state enters their data, we pick it up, and we discuss it.
“It is not just me, but a team will look at the data and the clusters involved. This is not manipulation; these are the facts we have. We have been using facts since day one,” Noor Hisham said in his press conference at the Health Ministry in Putrajaya today.
He said the Health Ministry’s projection had shown that if the R0 (pronounced R-naught) remains at its current value of 1.5, the number of daily cases will continue to rise above 1,000.
“Maybe after Oct 31, we will no longer have three-digit (daily cases). It will be four-digit (daily cases) unless we lower our R0 to less than 1.0.
“Based on our projection, it will take four weeks before we can maybe drop down to three-digit cases again,” he said.
He also urged people not to take advantage of the conditional movement control order (MCO) with loosened restrictions on the economic sector.
The MCO in March was too costly, which is why the government had decided to allow economic activities to go on as usual this time, in order to balance “life and livelihood”, he said.
“But please do not take advantage and violate the whole conditional MCO because the principle is to stay at home and break the chain of infections.
“Help us to help you to break the chain of infection in the community. The virus is already in the community.
“If you do not comply, it is just a matter of time before you see an exponential spike in infection,” he said.
Noor Hisham also urged people to lodge a report to the police if they were to see any violation of the standard operating procedures (SOP) under the conditional MCO such as mass gatherings.
“If there is any gathering, any violation, please report it to the police. The enforcement of Act 342 is under the police, that is our advice.
“Everyone has to play a part, then only we can win. If all of us come together to comply (with the SOP), and not blame each other, but comply with the SOP and stay at home, then within two weeks, we can break the chain of infection in the country,” he said.
Noor Hisham was responding to a question about whether mass gatherings, such as the BN MPs' meeting in Putra World Trade Center, were allowed under the conditional MCO. - Mkini
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