COVID-19: Malaysia hopes to break infection chain not long from now - Health DG

Malaysia is optimistic that it will be able to break the COVID-19 infection chain not too long from now, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

He said currently, almost 95 percent of COVID-19 tests returned negative.

Also, hospital bed occupancy has reduced to a rate of 15 percent, he added.

"To date, there are only nine COVID-19 patients being treated in the intensive care unit with only two requiring ventilators."

"At one time, the number surpassed 100 patients," he pointed out at the daily COVID-19 media briefing at the Health Ministry (MOH) here today, while also expressing his appreciation towards the MOH workforce for a job well done.

He said what was important now is to successfully carry out the six criteria outlined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as part of the soft landing 'exit strategy', which among others include close monitoring, hospital capabilities and border control.

They also include the protection of senior citizens, standard operating procedures compliance and community empowerment, he added.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that resolute public health action coupled with a strong ability to detect COVID-19 cases contributed to zero fatalities reported in the country in the last eight days.

He said detection ability was now at almost 30,000 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests a day.

"Besides this, Malaysia has 200,000 antigen rapid test kits with only less than 5,000 kits used so far," he said.

To date, Malaysia's COVID-19 death toll remains at 115 cases, or 1.4 percent of the 7,762 infection case tally.

--BERNAMA