COVID-19: Third wave may be worse - Dr Noor Hisham

Malaysia will likely face a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic if self-compliance towards the standard operating procedure (SOP) is not observed, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the emergence of new clusters signalled the lack of discipline amongst Malaysian in complying with the SOP and warned of a possibility of an even more dangerous wave of COVID-19 infections.

“It is not impossible for us to face a third wave, one that is far worse, if we don’t act now.

"The new clusters are like burning embers and those who do not follow the SOP are akin to fuel," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said with the two elements combined, the new clusters and people who flout the SOP, it will likely lead to an exponential spike in cases.

Earlier, two more new COVID-19 clusters have been identified in Kedah (Kluster Sivagangga, India) and Sarawak (Kluster Satok) involving nine individuals who have tested positive.

He emphasized that it was crucial for Malaysians to take preventive measures such as wearing a face mask and practising social distancing seriously as a spike in cases could exhaust our hospital capacity.

“We looked at other countries, the cases are increasing not by single-digit but up to 4 digits. If we have 5,000 cases a day or 10,000 cases a day, our hospital capacity is limited, beds and ICU.

“We currently have 10,000 beds for COVID-19 patients, but we will increase if need be,” he said.

Yesterday, the number of new COVID-19 cases returned to double digits when 39 cases were reported involving 28 local cases, bringing the cumulative number of new cases to 8,943.