CMCO needed to preserve green zones, says Health DG

COVID-19 | Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the conditional movement control order (MCO) is needed to protect green zones in the country such as Perlis, Pahang and Kelantan.

This came after Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Saturday that most states will come under the conditional MCO starting Nov 9 until Dec 6, except for Perlis, Pahang, Kelantan and Sarawak.

“We want to limit cross-border, cross-state and even cross-district movements, so this is our approach. We need to protect the green states, for example, Perlis, Pahang and Kelantan.

“In Sarawak, Kuching is under the conditional MCO but we need to protect the green areas (in Sarawak).

“We do not need to wait until all the zones become red, then only we take action. That’s too late,” Noor Hisham said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

He added that there were similar objections when the conditional MCO was first implemented in Selangor almost four weeks ago.

“When we started the conditional MCO in Selangor, there were a lot of objections (asking) why do it in Selangor.

“It is because the infectivity rate is high and also due to the density and mobility of the population. What we implemented was proactive and preemptive action.”

Aside from the conditional MCO, he said the ministry is also stepping up its public health activities.

There have already been some positive signs, Noor Hisham said, with the infectivity rate or R₀ (pronounced R-nought) going down in recent weeks.

“Now we need to make sure that the infection is contained. If we can break the chain of infection then we reduce (the infectivity rate) even further.

“We hope that by limiting the movement from one zone to another, for example, from red zone to green zone, perhaps that is the best way to contain the infection,” he added.

The health director-general also explained the difference between the second wave and the third wave is that the infections were mainly focused in certain localities during the second wave, whereas the virus is already in the community now.

“The virus is already in the community and once it is in the community, there is no going back to normal.

“We need to live with the virus, we need to adapt to this new environment to survive to prevent from infection,” he said.

He reiterated that the recent Sabah state polls had taught us a lesson - it is not the right time for an election at the moment. 

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