MCO likely over by Chinese New Year, then CMCO

 

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says the MCO is likely to last four weeks, after which a three-month CMCO will be imposed.

PETALING JAYA: The health ministry said today it expects the current round of movement control order restrictions to be lifted after four weeks.

If so, the MCO is likely to be over by Chinese New Year, after which relaxed restrictions under a conditional MCO are likely to be implemented for three months or more.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today the ministry hoped the movement restrictions would bring down the number of cases to double-digit levels by May.

He said the current MCO would not last more than four weeks.

It was imposed on Jan 13 and is currently scheduled to end on Feb 4, which amounts to a period of three weeks. (Should the MCO last for four weeks, as Noor Hisham said, the restriction period would be in place for a further week, taking it to the beginning of Chinese New Year.)

“After the cases stabilise at around 3,000 a day, we hope to see a decrease in cases in another two weeks. If we impose the MCO for four weeks, followed by a CMCO after that, maybe we can achieve daily double-digit cases by May,” he told the media at a Covid-19 emergency briefing today.

He added that the country’s current infection rate or R0 (R Naught) had improved slightly from 1.2 to 1.06 today.

93 private hospitals to take in serious Covid-19 cases

Noor Hisham also revealed that 95 of the 135 private hospitals have agreed to assist the health ministry by taking in Category 3, 4 and 5 patients in their facilities.

This will bring an additional 54 ventilators and 1,351 beds, including 65 beds for intensive care into the Covid-19 healthcare system.

Although the health ministry’s capacity has increased, he said healthcare officials were still working to reduce the number of daily cases so the system was able to cope.

Noor Hisham said discussions are being held with insurance companies and Bank Negara for patients to claim medical insurance for costs of Covid-19 treatment.

In the meantime, he said they would focus on transferring more non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals, adding that the health ministry had already sent 3,800 patients for surgery in the private sector last year.

Penang private hospitals taking in Covid-19 patients

Several private hospitals in Penang have started receiving Covid-19 patients, chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said today, Bernama reported.

He said the state health department was still having further discussions with other medical centres and several agencies for screening and treatment of various categories of patients.

“The state government is also looking at a new location for a low-risk treatment and quarantine centre,” he said, adding that national disaster management officials had visited the Mara excellence centre in Jawi, Seberang Perai, last week. - FMT