PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), June 4 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The number of positive COVID-19 cases reported Thursday again reached three digits with 277 cases recorded, of which 271 involved non-Malaysians.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the total, there were only four local transmissions among Malaysians and two imported cases involving Malaysians who were infected overseas.
“A total of 270 cases among non-Malaysians were from the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot and which were repeat samples of those detained and quarantined there
“They were previously exposed to positive cases. Meanwhile, one case involving a foreigner is from a construction site in Pudu,” he said at the daily COVID-19 media briefing here Thursday.
The last time positive COVID-19 cases in Malaysia reached three digits was on May 26 with 187 cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said the current cumulative total of COVID-19 cases stood at 8,247 and that no deaths were recorded Thursday, while six patients were still being treated in the intensive care unit, with two requiring ventilator support.
He said there were 1,573 active infectivity cases and all the patients had been isolated and undergoing treatment.
He said 28 patients had recovered and were discharged Thursday, bringing the cumulative figure to 6,559 or 79.5 per cent of the total cases.
Meanwhile, he said the MOH recognised the important role played by district health offices as the main action team in curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the country by adopting an aggressive and targeted public health approach in handling cases involving Malaysians and foreigners.
“Even before this, the district health offices had played an important role in continuously implementing various preventive measures in stages to curb infections. One of the important measures carried out since the pandemic began was active investigative and tracing activities of COVID-19 cases,” he said.
Among the investigative and tracing activities carried out included close contacts, house-to-house active case detection, targeted screening, drive through sampling and disinfecting patients’ houses, he said.
He said the district health offices were also responsible in ensuring health clinics (KK) were ready to carry out COVID-19 screenings at selected clinics in their respective areas as sample collection centres as well as Sentinel Clinic.
He said the district health offices also conducted health promotion and psycho-social support activities to ensure people in Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) areas received accurate information and adopted preventive measures.
“The district health offices also managed COVID-19 death cases by carrying out burials in accordance with the guidelines set by the assistance environmental officer,” he said.
Regarding the EMCO, which allows the government to carry out public health activities, he said the house-to-house census conducted by health team personnel included sample-taking activities by health clinic staff to detect risk cases.
As such, Dr Noor Hisham expressed his gratitude for the continuous and outstanding efforts of district health offices, mainly in the successful prevention of COVID-19 transmission cases, especially among Malaysians which is now at one digit.
