PUTRAJAYA, March 30 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) expects to gather all samples from the two Covid-19 affected areas in Simpang Renggam, Johor now under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) within 10 days.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said MOH was now collecting an average of 300 samples daily, especially from the targetted high-risk group.
“There are 3,000 residents in both the villages, so we expect to complete the task within 10 days.
“The (ministry) team has been going house to house to make sure we detect the targetted high-risk group. We will conduct sample testing on this group even if they do not show symptoms,” he said at the daily media briefing on Covid-19 here today.
Dr Noor Hisham was responding to questions on developments with regard to the sample-gathering exercise in Kampung Dato’ Ibrahim Majid and Bandar Baharu Dato’ Ibrahim in Simpang Renggam that commenced last Friday.
In another development, Dr Noor Hisham said to date, a total of 18,271 Covid-19 screenings had been done on the Sri Petaling mosque tabligh cluster.
“Of these, 14,111 samples were taken, with 1,290 testing positive, 8,083 negative while results of another 4,738 are pending.
Meanwhile, the MOH has also advised that any distribution of food items by non-governmental organisations (NGO) must adhere to regulations and standard operating procedures of the National Security Council (MKN) as such matters were not under the MOH’s purview.
“We have to comply as right now, the movement control order (MCO) is in force, so there are risks for the NGOs when they are on the ground, especially when there is close contact.”
“Their actions are well-intended but the MCO must be enforced strictly,” Dr Noor Hisham said when replying to questions on guidelines that should be taken by NGOs when distributing food items to frontliners.
— Bernama
