PUTRAJAYA,Dec 29: The health ministry wanted to implement a full movement control order regime to check a third wave of Covid-19 infections, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday.
However, a conditional movement control order was put in place because of “the huge impact the MCO would have had on the economy”, he said.
Noor Hisham said the conditional movement control order had successfully curbed the spread of Covid-19 infections. Without it, about four million Malaysians were expected to have been infected with the virus.
“Today, we see only about 106,000 cases reported so far,” he said at his daily media briefing on Covid-19.
Noor Hisham said the implementation of the MCO (from March 18 to May 4) was very successful in terms of reducing the infection rate. However, it had a very huge impact on the economy.
“During this third wave, the Ministry of Health (actually) wanted to implement the MCO, but due to the huge impact it would have on the economy, we have implemented the CMCO,” he said.
He reminded the people to continue to comply with hygiene and safety rules to ensure the infection rate is kept under check. If the people remained compliant, the number of daily positive cases in the country could be reduced within the next three weeks.
