MCO is unable to eliminate COVID-19 completely - Health DG

The Ministry of Health has announced that the Movement Control Order (MCO) cannot completely eradicate the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

On the other hand, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the community needed to be prepared for the virus for longer.

However, he said, Malaysia's capabilities and achievements in breaking the curve and controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus is a success for the people and the government.

"The implementation of the MCO in the country comprises four major action plans, two of which are by the government and the other two by the public.

"The actions taken by the government are movement control and border control. Border control is needed to reduce COVID-19 import cases as more than 180 countries are involved in the infection," he said in a press conference here Tuesday.

Commenting further, Dr Noor Hisham said the results of the movement control could also be seen from the implementation of phase 1, 2 and 3 of MCO which saw the reduction of COVID-19 infectivity.

"The Ministry of Health will continue its containment and control activities but active participation of the people is very important.

"Therefore, the two actions that people need to take are to maintain a safe social distance of at least one meter and maintain a level of personal hygiene, especially washing hands with water and soap or using hand sanitizers," he said.