KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has called on the public to learn from the mistake of ignoring standard operating procedures (SOPs), especially during festival celebrations in the past that triggered the spread of COVID-19.
He said this should be foremost on the minds of the people ahead of Hari Raya Aidiladha, which will be celebrated on July 20.
“The community is reminded that cross-district and cross-state bans are still in force. So is the ban on visitations during a celebration.
“Don’t let the excitement of celebrating Hari Raya Korban (Aidiladha) cause us all to be ‘sacrificed’ due to COVID-19,” he in a statement today.
While thanking all Malaysians who have been diligently complying with the outlined SOP and remaining at home, Dr Noor Hisham said there were some individuals who refused to comply, and this was what made the situation difficult.
According to him, since the implementation of the total lockdown of the social and economic sectors from June 1, a total of 267 community clusters were reported as of yesterday, largely due to the festivals which came prior, namely Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Hari Gawai.
He said the clusters were triggered due to visiting activities in neighbourhoods or villages, and meetings between family members from different houses during celebrations and funerals.
“From these 267 community clusters, a total of 17,106 positive cases were reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH). These cases were detected from 72,755 individuals screened (positivity rate of 23.5 per cent) through continous Active Case Detection (ACD) conducted in the field by the District Health Office,” he said.
According to Dr Noor Hisham, several community clusters that were reported also involved cross-state activities.
Dr Noor Hisham said the states that reported the highest number of cross-state clusters since June 1 were Perak with eight clusters (38.1 per cent), Terengganu (five) (23.8 per cent) and Kelantan (three) (14.3 per cent).
