Detection in the community continues despite cases on the decline - Dr Noor Hisham

While the incidence of infections is decreasing, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will continue to carry out COVID-19 infection detection activities.

Director-General of Health, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said it was to ensure that there were no sporadic cases in the community or exposure to new cases.

"In addition to active detection of cases among close contacts of positive patients, we also carry out random sampling including in localities suspected of involving vulnerable groups as well as patients before undergoing surgery," he told a press conference here on Monday.

Commenting further, Dr Noor Hisham further said that infection detection was also performed on lung patients although they were not needing an operation.

To date, he said the MOH has detected 13 positive cases or 0.1 per cent of patients before undergoing surgery.

The figure of 0.1 per cent, he said, was considered very low compared to the overall total of the samples.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the MOH would continue to conduct random sampling from time to time to study the immunity response in the community.