PETALING JAYA, Oct 16: Medical groups have cautioned the public against ruling out an extension of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) for the Klang Valley, Putrajaya and Sabah.
They noted repeated extensions of such orders in the recent past and said that could be the case again if the current CMCO did not result in satisfactory reductions in Covid-19 cases.
The CMCO for Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya is scheduled to end on Oct 27. For Sabah, it is set to end a day earlier.
Dr Subramaniam Muniandy, president of the Malaysian Medical Association, said the current Klang Valley restrictions were sufficient, but added that the government might fine-tune them as it monitors the situation.
“If there is no improvement in the number of cases in two weeks,” he said, “I think we can expect an extension of the CMCO or even additional restrictions.
“The goal now is to flatten the curve and prevent a full lockdown.”
Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud, a council member for the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, said “two weeks is too short to see a real downtrend as current infections may not be seen for a week or so”.
He said the current situation was “a little different” from what Malaysians faced during the first MCO.
Dr Lim Kuan Joo, a council member of the Malaysian Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations, questioned the rationale behind the two-week time frame.
“Twenty-eight days is the benchmark to be declared free from the Covid-19 threat,” he said.
He also said data collection and analyses should be employed to decide whether an extension would be necessary.
