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Dr Noor Hisham: CMCO necessary to break the chain of Covid-19 infection following consistent high number of new cases

General view of traffic in Kuala Lumpur October 12, 2020. In his daily press conference today, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that since the start of the Covid-19 third wave in the country, the nation has seen a consistent high number of new cases, especially in Sabah. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri
General view of traffic in Kuala Lumpur October 12, 2020. In his daily press conference today, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that since the start of the Covid-19 third wave in the country, the nation has seen a consistent high number of new cases, especially in Sabah. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — The conditional movement control order (CMCO) due to begin on October 14 for the Klang Valley and Sabah is necessary to break the Covid-19 infection chain, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In his daily press conference today, Dr Noor Hisham pointed out that since the start of the Covid-19 third wave in the country, the nation has seen a consistent high number of new cases, especially in Sabah.

Dr Noor Hisham said while the Klang Valley seems under control, Covid-19 cases have been rising consistently.

“For Klang Valley, which consists of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, despite daily cases being less than 100, new infections are consistently recorded daily and these cases are spread out in all districts in Klang Valley with the exception of Sabak Bernam.

“We can no longer wait and see yellow zones slowly turning into red zones to then implement conditional movement control order or enhance movement control order,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham explained that a targeted approach for CMCO could have been if the infection was only recorded in one or two districts.

“It is a real challenge for the ministry of health and the government to strike a balance between lives and livelihood ... and if we talk about lockdown it means MCO, a total lockdown.

“How do we strike a balance between lives and livelihood between health and economy, we mitigate in terms of CMCO ... we allow the economic sector to function but we restrict the movement for social, education as well as sports. We hope to strike the right balance,’’ he said, adding that the ministry is hoping to see the positive results in two to three weeks.

Today, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Sabah will face another phase of CMCO, starting from October 14 to October 27.

The exact details of the CMCO are due to be released tomorrow by the authorities but economic sectors would still be allowed to open albeit with restrictions.

Malaysia today recorded 563 cases, which brings the total active cases to 5,039 and recorded two new deaths.

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