Klang Valley conditional MCO best way to prevent spread of Covid-19 - DG

 

The newly announced conditional movement control order (MCO) for the whole of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is the best way to prevent the further spread of Covid-19 in Klang Valley as the cases are too scattered throughout the state and territories, said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The Health Ministry director-general also said even though the number of cases is less than 100 per day for the Klang Valley area, it is still consistently recording new cases every day.

“We need to understand that the risk assessment depends on the area and it is not just based on the number of positive cases daily, but also the pattern of the transmission.

“If the transmission is only concentrated in one or two districts (in Klang Valley), then a targeted enhanced MCO can be done.

“But if the infection has already spread to every district, scattered throughout the Klang Valley, this means that the transmission cannot be stopped effectively (with a targeted enhanced MCO).

“That is why the best way to break the transmission is to do a state-wide conditional MCO so that the spread can be contained more effectively,” Noor Hisham said in his press conference today, which was live-streamed on Facebook.

He pointed out that Covid-19 has started to spread to every district in the Klang Valley except Sabak Bernam.

Hence, he said the decision to impose the conditional MCO on Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is a proactive and preventative measure to curb the transmission of Covid-19 before it spreads to all of the state and territories.

Noor Hisham also acknowledged the World Health Organization’s warning against utilising a lockdown as a primary mean of controlling the virus as it could have a dramatic impact on poverty.

It is a challenge for the Health Ministry to strike a balance between life and livelihood, he said.

A total lockdown would be a situation like the initial MCO, but in order to strike a balance between the people’s safety and the economy, the government chose to implement the conditional MCO instead, he said.

“We mitigate in terms of the conditional MCO, where we allow the economic sector to function but we restrict movement for the social, education as well as the sports sector.

“It is important for us to make the right decision so we can balance between life and livelihood, and this is what we are doing now and we hope that our action will bear fruit within two to three weeks’ time,” he said.

Earlier today, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that the government will impose a conditional MCO on Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, effective 12.01am on Wednesday (Oct 14) until Oct 27, 2020.

Similarly, he also announced that Sabah will also come under the conditional MCO starting 12.01am on Tuesday (Oct 13) until Oct 26, 2020.

However, after the announcement, the Selangor state government said they were surprised by the decision.

Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said only several districts in the Klang Valley were recording a worrying number of Covid-19 cases. - Mkini