COVID-19 free if zero cases for 28 consecutive days - Health D-G

Malaysia will only be declared free of COVID-19 if no new positive cases recorded for 28 consecutive days, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said it was in line with the mechanism used to monitor a cluster, which was the length of two cycles of incubation of the virus infection.

“If we look at what we have done to end a cluster by monitoring it for a 28-day period, so we will use it as our benchmark against the infection,” he said in a media briefing on COVID-19’s development here today.

According to international media reports, New Zealand yesterday declared the country free of COVID-19 after 17 days of no new cases in the country.

However, the country still closes its doors to foreign tourists.

In the meantime, he said, to prevent transmission of virus infection while travelling on full capacity express buses and other public transport services, screenings would be carried out before boarding as well as using an appropriate application.

“The important thing now is to conduct screenings before boarding, while the second thing is to use an application to know passengers’ seating arrangement. What we are worried most is overcrowding, but if we can find out the seating arrangement, then it would be easy for identification,” he said.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob during the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) daily media conference today said all public transport services, including flights and express buses, as well as e-hailing services and private vehicles, are now allowed to operate at full capacity while adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Asked about traders at the Jalan Raja Bot market in Kuala Lumpur who were required to undergo COVID-19 screening before being allowed to resume their businesses, Dr Noor Hisham said they now needed to do the screening in private laboratories.

He said the Titiwangsa district health office had conducted six screenings in the locality from April 23 to May 12 and several traders had refused to be screened because they claimed they stopped trading following the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

“The screening will no longer be carried out by the Ministry of Health (MOH) after the infection cycle ends.

“The MOH will only conduct screening if there is a need to control an outbreak,” he said.

Meanwhile, commenting on the request by the disabled community for the government to reconsider for reopening of reflexology services, Dr Noor Hisham said the MoH was streamlining the SOPs and to present it to the National Security Council (MKN) next week.

He said the SOPs on the matter needed to be discussed with all parties on methods that could be adopted to ensure that no transmission to occur.

“We really want to reopen it but we need to look carefully at the applicable SOPs, so we will look at the end of the RMCO. If we are to reopen all sectors we need to make sure there is no spike in the number of daily new cases.

“If we can maintain the new cases at one or two figures and continue to reduce the number of infection, then we can open more sectors. We have to balance between the two (protecting lives and livelihoods),” he said.

-- BERNAMA