[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: Chief Health Officer Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah expects the number of positive Covid-19 cases to remain high following the widespread review of all foreign workers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Labuan.
He said that 80% of the positive cases of foreign worker screening were Category 1 (asymptomatic).
He said hospitals had enough beds to treat Covid-19 patients in serious condition.
“Currently, only 0.6% of intensive care unit beds are in use and there are 1,550 ventilators available for use.”
On China’s Sinovac vaccine, he said the government was still monitoring clinical trials in Beijing.
He said Malaysia had identified eight hospitals for local trials to study the effectiveness and side effects of the vaccine, developed by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Co Ltd..
On the effectiveness of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) still imposed in several states on the peninsula, he said that this had prevented an exponential increase in the number of cases.
He added that the CMCO has managed to reduce the infection rate (R0) from 2.2 to 0.96.
“But having said that, we have to further reduce the R0 to 0.5 or 0.3. So we can flatten the curve. “
Noor Hisham added that R0 had been hovering around 1.1 and 0.9 for the past few weeks.
“If we continue to maintain this, it will still be under control, but we have to reduce it even more.”
CLICK HERE FOR OUR LIVE UPDATE ON THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN MALAYSIA
