COVID-19: MoH acknowledges war not over, journey still a long way off

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is on the same page with the World Health Organization (WHO) with a belief that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.

Thus, the Director-General of Health, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, warned Malaysians not to be complacent with the trend of declining COVID-19 cases in the country.

He said the people would have to abide by the standard operating procedure (SOP) set to break the COVID-19 infection chain in Malaysia.

"As World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in a virtual briefing, the world's COVID-19 pandemic is not over.

"In fact, globally, COVID-19 pandemic cases are on the rise. He also warned that COVID-19 pandemic situations around the world are expected to worsen.

"To quote Dr Tedros: ‘We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over.

"Therefore, the cooperation of all parties is crucial for us to jointly break the COVID-19 infection chain in Malaysia," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, most sectors of the economy are already open and fully operational, but the spread of cases in the community is controlled.