Covid-19 infections would increase exponentially without MCO, says Health D-G
KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — The Health Ministry had predicted a third wave of Covid-19 infections, or what it termed a “tsunami”, if Putrajaya had not implemented the movement control order (MCO) from March 18 to April 14.
Its director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told a press conference today that the wave had been predicted to hit Malaysia three weeks ago, but also admitted that the ministry was blindsided by the mass tabligh gathering at the Jamek Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.
“Many Malaysians take their vacations abroad. We found out that one ministry had already approved 8,000 leave applications for travel. At that time, we had identified Japan, China, Korea, Italy and Iran as high-risk countries with travel restrictions.
“Let’s take that one ministry as an example. People usually go on vacation with their families. An average Malaysian family consists of four individuals — father, mother and two children. That one ministry alone will have around 32,000 people who might be infected when they come home.
“It will trigger another wave, one that we imported. If you recall Case 23, it was a family that came home from Japan and they tested positive,” explained Dr Noor Hisham.
He elaborated further that the government’s fear at that point in time was that tens of thousands of Malaysians could be infected after visiting foreign countries and trying to quarantine them would not merely be a logistical nightmare but also downright impossible.
His ministry had predicted that it would not be able to handle and isolate 32,000 individuals — all from the same ministry.
“We would have been unable to handle or isolate 32,000 people. That’s only from a single ministry. We feared that if 32,000 Malaysian tourists return home, we would have an exponential spike on Covid-19 import cases.
“We don’t have the capacity to isolate and place them in quarantine. That’s one ministry, what about the rest of Malaysia?” Dr Noor Hisham explained.
Therefore, the best step to rein in the pandemic before it grew out of control was to implement the MCO.
This had forced nearly the entire country to sit at home in quarantine, limiting the virus’ infection rate and capability to infect, he said.
Dr Noor Hisham added this would be the first step to making it easier for the government to track down any Covid-19 cases and take necessary action, from ferrying Covid-19 patients to hospital or asking them to remain in self-isolate.
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