COVID: Situation becoming critical, all reminded to adhere to SOP

KUALA LUMPUR: Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has described the spread of COVID-19 in the country as becoming critical again and every individual is required to continue complying with the standard operating procedure (SOP).

In a post on his Twitter site, he said the people need to return to practising 3C which is avoiding crowded places, confined space and close conversation.

“While the practice of 3W - frequent washing of hands, wearing face mask in public places and Ministry of Health (MOH) warning on avoiding handshake and to seek immediate treatment if one has symptoms,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham in a separate tweet said the number of new positive COVID-19 cases today is 2,881 compared to 3,788 yesterday.

He added that Selangor recorded the highest new infections with 759 cases followed by Sarawak (445) and Kelantan (442) while Perlis was the only state to have zero transmissions today.

In his media statement, Dr Noor Hisham said in the past 24 hours, there were 2,642 recovery cases bringing the cumulative total of recoveries to 380,442 cases while the number of active cases now stands at 29,227.

He said 337 cases were treated at Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 176 of them requiring respiratory assistance while another 15 fatalities were reported, taking the total death toll to 1,521 people.

He added that 14 new clusters were also identified today involving four clusters each in the community, workplace and education sector as well as two religious clusters.

The community clusters are Sungai Nirai cluster in Sarawak, Umas cluster in, Sabah, Seri Jati cluster in Melaka and Jalan Sepat cluster in Perak, while the workplace clusters are Jalan Garuda cluster, Johor, Jalan Sungai Sembilang cluster, Selangor, Jalan Kilang Dua cluster, Sabah, and Durin cluster, Sarawak.

The religious clusters involved Sebatu cluster and Air Budi cluster in Melaka; while Lestari Perdana Tujuh cluster, Selangor and Saujana cluster, Terengganu were linked to other education category; Persiaran Sinaran Ilmu cluster, Johor (higher education cluster); and Long Jegan cluster, Sarawak (MOE education institution).

-- BERNAMA