This, too, will pass, Noor Hisham assures the Klang Valley

 

Restrictions and other measures in the Klang Valley will reduce the Covid-19 infection rate, says Noor Hisham Abdullah.

PETALING JAYA: Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has allayed fears about the high number of cases in the Klang Valley, saying that the public health interventions in place would bring down the infection rate.

“Right now, there are no vaccines or medicine (to kill the virus), but we do have public health methods,” he said.

He said Kedah had similarly gone through a spate of high case numbers, with many active clusters, such as the Sivagangga, Tawar, Salak, Telaga and Sungai clusters. But now few cases have been reported in Kedah.

Noor Hisham said the number of cases had come down after public health interventions such as targeted screenings at suspected zones and restrictions of the targeted enhanced movement control order.

“Selangor and Klang Valley, too, we can control and reduce the number of cases,” he said.

He added that based on the number of cases yesterday and today, the R0 (R-naught, or infection rate) in the country was between 0.3 and 1.0.

He said the figure showed that public health activities and partial lockdowns in areas under the conditional movement control order in certain states were showing results.

Stay home for only 2 more weeks, says DG

He urged the public to continue staying home “for only another two weeks”, unless it is absolutely necessary to leave the house.

Noor Hisham has previously stated that the CMCO over Sabah, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan could only be lifted if the infection rate was lower than 0.3.

When asked about a case of a Sarawakian woman who had tested positive 18 days after returning home from Labuan, Noor Hisham said the woman showed symptoms on the 11th day, but did not report them.

The woman was tested a second time on day 10 of her mandatory quarantine, and was released on day 14.

He added that, at times, people who requested to be released from quarantine earlier may be tested a second time before day 13. He said this was because results may take longer than one day.

“That’s why one of the reasons (for the earlier second test) might be that if they get tested on day 10 then maybe they can get the results on day 13 or day 14, because results can take a few days.”

He said there have been no cases in Malaysia of a patient showing symptoms and testing positive beyond the 14-day virus incubation period. -FMT