We're now in Covid-19 third wave, expect more cases from Sabah: Health DG

 

COVID-19 | Malaysia is now facing the third wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, said the Health director-general today, adding that more cases are expected in Sabah this coming week.

According to Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, health authorities with the cooperation of security agencies, are still working to battle the pandemic in the Borneo state.

"We are hoping to be able to flatten the curve of new cases in Sabah. We are expecting to see an increase in the number of cases in this coming one week.

"However, as we can see for the past three days, the number has been decreasing. But we are still doing active case detection and community tracing, and we are hoping to be able to trace all positive cases," he said.

Noor Hisham, who is under home quarantine after having close contact with a minister who is Covid-19 positive, gave the presser in isolation from his residence.

The Health Ministry has deployed reinforcement and additional assets to Sabah, including extra personal protective equipment and swab test kits for case detection activities, he added.

"Now we have entered the third wave, and it is up to us to control the outbreak in our country. Once again, I want to remind the people to follow procedures and stay at home to help the Health Ministry."

Answering a question from the media regarding claims circulating online that travellers from Sabah have allegedly tried to avoid getting screened for Covid-19 by flying into Sarawak before continuing to other states, Noor Hisham refuted the notion.

He said that Sarawak is also conducting detection tests on travellers with a travel history to high-risk areas in Sabah, as per the practice at other entry points in the country.

"As you can see, border control in Sarawak and Labuan had also started since Sept 27, the same time as at other international and domestic entry points in the Peninsular.

"There were positive cases detected in Sarawak and Labuan because we have enforced, and conducted testing on all travellers from Sabah," he added.

'Mandatory movement record has been very helpful'

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham described the mandatory check-in requirement imposed on all business premises has been very helpful to the Health Ministry.

The records, he said, especially on MySejahtera app have been used by district health offices to conduct contact tracing, especially when a case is detected at the premises.

"The MySejahtera team with the district health office will narrow down who checked in during that period and identify them for further risk assessment. So we are using the info basically for contact tracing.

"If there's a need, we will actually use the information, for example, to alert premises owners about a person under investigation checking in. This will help the owner to stop the PUI from entering their premises," he added.

Asked on whether the ministry is freezing the leave of healthcare workers as preparation for the worsening situation, Noor Hisham said that they have not gone to that extent at this juncture.

"At the moment, leave for healthcare workers is not frozen. However, this will be reviewed from time to time."

However, Noor Hisham added that the ministry had issued a letter to postpone all activities that can be done later, and for its workers to switch to conducting their meetings, seminar and training via virtual conferences, among others. - Mkini