KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (July 8): The Health Ministry today blamed the recent increase in Covid-19 cases in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur on a tightening of public health measures in areas covered by the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO). According to the ministry’s director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur accounted for 42.02 percent and 13.01 percent of infections, respectively, from July 1 to 7, compared to 38.33 percent and 12.29 percent in the previous week.
“Public health activities can be more targeted during the EMCO.” For the early detection of Covid-19 instances, close contact detection and health screening efforts, particularly on symptomatic persons, have been implemented more forcefully. This enables for immediate isolation to avoid the spread of the community. In addition, the Health Ministry performs screenings of 10% of the population living in EMCO zones, with high-risk individuals receiving priority,” he stated.
Dr. Noor Hisham went on to say that as part of the response to the spike in new infections, the ministry would continue to outsource services to private hospitals and laboratories to help the government cope with the outbreak.
To date, the outsourcing services have been used by 72 private hospitals across the country.
According to Dr. Noor Hisham, the Kuala Lumpur Hospital has expanded the outsourcing of patients to adjacent private hospitals as a result of the significant surge of new Covid-19 cases in the Klang Valley.
“Since July 6, 25 patients have been transferred to private hospitals, with an additional four patients expected to be transferred daily.”
“The number of patients who will be transferred to private hospitals in the next six months is expected to be 993, requiring an investment of RM18 million,” he added.
According to Dr. Noor Hisham, the total RT-PCR testing capability of all participating laboratories is 116,803 tests per day.
Malaysia’s current basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) for Covid-19 infections is 1.07, with Putrajaya having the highest R0 of 1.22, according to the ministry.
This R0 or Rt predicts the average number of people who will be infected by each new Covid-19 patient, also known as the effective reproduction number. If the R0 value is less than 1.0, the virus is not spreading.
Malaysia’s new Covid-19 cases increased to 8,868 today, bringing the total number of cases recorded in the country to 808,658.
Malaysia also saw the greatest daily death toll since the outbreak began, with 135 people dying, bringing the country’s total death toll to 5,903./n
