{"id":6930,"date":"2020-11-22T11:53:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T03:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=6930"},"modified":"2020-11-22T11:53:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T03:53:37","slug":"cmco-prevented-covid-19-case-spike-saved-economy-dr-noor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=6930","title":{"rendered":"CMCO prevented COVID-19 case spike, saved economy &#8211; Dr. Noor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>PUTRAJAYA,\u00a0Nov &#8212; Measures implemented\u00a0under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in several states have prevented a drastic\u00a0spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said during\u00a0the initial stages of the pandemic\u2019s third wave, several organizations,\u00a0including London\u2019s Imperial College,\u00a0projected the\u00a0number of infections to spike\u00a0to between 5,000 and 8,000 cases a day, adding that the Health Ministry itself had expected some 4,500 cases a day at the end of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut this did not happen as we\u00a0implemented the CMCO\u00a0and have now seen the results. However, the (COVID-19) war is far from over,\u201d he said in a special COVID-19 briefing today, which was also attended by senior ministry officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-1024x558.jpg\" alt=\"spike\" class=\"wp-image-6931\" width=\"490\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-1024x558.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-184x100.jpg 184w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-350x191.jpg 350w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-800x436.jpg 800w, https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg 1079w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the two-hour briefing, Dr Noor Hisham&nbsp;said in the early stages of the pandemic, the government implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO)&nbsp;which although proved to be effective in breaking the chain of infection,&nbsp;caused the country to suffer losses of about RM2.4 billion a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo during the National Security Council meeting, we took into account life and livelihood, a balance between health and economy before deciding on the&nbsp;CMCO,\u201d&nbsp;he said, adding that the MOH had at one point even suggested that the MCO be implemented in Selangor starting Oct 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this could not be done after considering economic factors, and as such that (MCO)&nbsp;proposal was replaced with the CMCO instead, Dr Noor Hisham said when commenting on calls by netizens to re-implement the MCO following the recent spike in cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked whether the MOH will conduct large-scale COVID-19 screenings, he said for now, only targeted approach mass testing would be conducted, such as for individuals returning from high-risk places and also foreign workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the MOH has also proposed to conduct scheduled screenings on employees from risk sectors such as construction and production in certain states, including the Klang Valley, Negeri Sembilan, Penang and Sabah, Dr Noor Hisham said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, MOH&nbsp;Disease Control Division director&nbsp;Dr Norhayati Rusli, who also attended the briefing, said&nbsp;Malaysia had&nbsp;prepared early in terms of facilities and so on to address the probability of a pandemic such as COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn December last year, Malaysia invited foreign experts and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assess Malaysia&#8217;s preparedness for&nbsp;possible incidents, and the experts found that Malaysia had met all the requirements outlined,&#8221; she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also said that fake news spread by irresponsible parties was among the challenges faced by the ministry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is one of the challenges we (MOH) face\u2026 how to convince the public and all levels (of society) that COVID-19 is real and how everyone needs to work together with the government to prevent and contain the pandemic,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bernama.com\/en\/news.php?id=1903892\">BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PUTRAJAYA,\u00a0Nov &#8212; Measures implemented\u00a0under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in several states have prevented&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7574,524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid19","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg",1079,588,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-300x163.jpg",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-768x419.jpg",640,349,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a-1024x558.jpg",640,349,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg",1079,588,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg",1079,588,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg",1079,588,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg",1024,558,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/7cfe0e1a4e9271e4e68395285770141e5fb91f2ece50a.jpg",720,392,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=7574\" rel=\"category\">COVID19<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?cat=524\" rel=\"category\">Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6932,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6930\/revisions\/6932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}