KUALA LUMPUR:Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today gave assurance and commitment of the government to continue handling and curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The Prime Minister who chaired the National Security Council (MKN) Special Meeting on the management of the pandemic earlier today said the COVID-19 situation in the country is currently under control and that the spread of the disease can still be curbed with the continuous cooperation of various agencies and ongoing public health monitoring activities by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

“Please be informed that most of the cases occurred among detainees in prisons, in areas under the Targetted Enhanced Movement Control Order (TEMCO), and from the clusters that have already been identified and controlled.

“Those areas are being monitored at all times and detection of cases and close contacts are actively being done to ensure that positive cases could quickly be identified and isolated,” he said in the latest posting on his Facebook page today.

Muhyiddin said in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Sabah, the government would also open more temporary detention and quarantine centres to house illegal immigrants before they could be deported to their countries of origin.

He said the government had also increased the number of MOH healthcare workers to carry out screenings on those illegal immigrants, as well as the number of security personnel to control the country's borders to curb the entry of illegal immigrants, especially in Sabah.

“Assets will be mobilised to stop any border intrusion attempt,” he said.

The Prime Minister also gave assurance that the country’s preparedness is at the highest level and capable of handling COVID-19 infection as what had been done before.

“We have 40 hospitals and 34 quarantine centres with 5,674-bed capacity and low-risk treatment for positive cases of COVID-19. The bed occupancy rate at the hospitals currently stood at only 24 per cent.

“Our health facilities also have 437 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 1,505 ventilators,” he said.

Muhyiddin also called on the public to stay calm in facing the current situation of COVID-19 and to continue making the new norms a culture while observing all the standard operating procedures set by the authorities.

“I believe that our frontliners, especially the MOH and the security forces, have the capacity and expertise in handling the situation,” he added.

-- BERNAMA