MOH adopts new approaches to combat COVID-19 in Sabah

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said additional manpower was needed at this juncture to carry out health activities at 19 low-risk quarantine centres and public health activities in the field in the state.

As such, he said the ‘whole-of-government’ approach, which referred to the internal manpower of MOH, and the ‘whole-of-society’ approach, involving volunteers, were very important to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 infection.

“We are in a crisis of new cases which are increasing every day, for example, in Sabah. Under normal circumstances, we have enough manpower to provide health services.

"But now we are in crisis. This is the time to increase the manpower resources," he said at a virtual press conference via the Facebook of MOH yesterday.

At the same time, he said MOH also welcomed the participation of volunteers from non-governmental organisations or using the 'whole-of-non-governmental organisations' in assisting the MOH medical teams.

To date, Sabah continued to record the highest number of new cases at 489 cases, after more laboratory results were obtained.

Commenting further, he said, until now, a total 767 MOH staff from various categories had been sent to Sabah.

“For the internal MOH staff in Sabah, 492 medical personnel and 52 public health personnel have been mobilised to the state since last month. Meanwhile, 175 medical personnel and 48 public health personnel from other states are also involved," he said.

On the Home Surveillance and Observation Order (HSO), Dr Noor Hisham reminded close contacts to undergo a 14-day quarantine period even though the first COVID-19 screening result was negative.

"We advise them to monitor their health using the MySejahtera application within 14 days. This is important because what we found, 75 per cent of cases were positive on the first day of quarantine while another 25 per cent were positive on the 13th day,” he said.