Covid-19 third wave may come under control only in May or June
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said it may take up to May or June to flatten the curve of the current third wave of Covid-19 infections.
During his daily press conference, Dr Noor Hisham said he did not foresee the reduction of daily cases in the next two weeks, but that the movement control order (MCO) imposed in the worst-hit areas could help reduce the figure from rising further.
However, he said the number of daily cases could be reduced via the MCO in around four weeks’ time where the country would see around 1,000 cases per day.
He also hoped the cases would be around 500 per day in the next four weeks to allow the public hospitals to have a better capacity to handle incoming patients.
“We now have two weeks and we will see whether we are able to reduce the cases in the span of a fortnight,” he said during his daily press conference today.
“To me in the span of two weeks we might not be able to reduce cases but we can avoid them from increasing further, or if we implement (MCO) for four weeks we can reduce the cases to 1,000.
“What is important is that we can reduce it to 500 and we will have the ability to treat (patients) or carry out separation of patients, to allow our hospitals to be able to accomodate all the cases.”
He added that with the implementation of the MCO and conditional MCO, the curve could be completely flattened by May or June.
“There must be strong cooperation between the Health Ministry, the government, and the Malaysian people. We have to be united to break the chain of Covid-19 in Malaysia.
On the detection of a case with the B.1.1.7 virus from the United Kingdom, which is a highly contagious variant of Covid-19, Noor Hisham said the recent discovery of the 22-year-old patient with the strain was isolated as he had been in quarantine upon arriving in Malaysia, and had no close contacts since returning to the country.
Noor Hisham also said hospitals in the country currently have the capacity to handle the intake of Covid-19 patients and the ministry is looking to set up more quarantine facilities, as well as work with private hospitals to take in patients.
“In Sungai Buloh Hospital, for example, we’re running 60 beds (for ICU) but more importantly is that we need more staff to open up more spaces. So we have the capacity but we are short on manpower,” he said.
He added that the ministry is working with the Public Services Department to address the shortage of manpower.
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