MUAR: The Health Ministry will carry out a risk assessment on Covid-19 in the middle of next month following the announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the epidemic is no longer categorised as a global health emergency.
Its minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the assessment was necessary to review the declaration of local areas of infection, which will expire on June 30, and to facilitate the government in determining the next direction involving the latest protection measures against Covid-19.
Although WHO no longer categorised Covid-19 as an international health emergency, she said the ministry needed to take into account local factors.
“We, at the technical committee, have given our views that we will continue with the existing standard operating procedures (SOP) and maintain the local areas of infection.
“We want to see the developments because there are still Covid-19 cases, but they are under control.
“We will look at the situation in the country first before adopting WHO’s recommendations,” she said after attending a townhall session on the White Paper on Health for the Southern Zone at the Higher Education hub in Pagoh yesterday, Bernama reported.
Dr Zaliha said the ministry would also review and update the Covid-19 guidelines with reference to the WHO’s recommendations regarding the long-term management transition of the pandemic.
It was reported on Saturday that the WHO had lifted its Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) status for Covid-19, but insists the disease continues to pose a global threat.
Meanwhile, in a statement regarding Covid-19 cases, Dr Zaliha said the number of cases increased by 53.1% to 7,596 in the 8th Epidemiology Week (ME 18/2023), which is from April 30 to May 6, from 4,963 the previous week.
“The admission rate of Covid-19 patients (including suspected patients) to public health facilities also showed an increase from 5.8% to 7.2% per 100,000 population in ME 18/2023 compared to ME 17/2023,” she said
The minister also added that the infection situation in Malaysia was still under control and did not affect the health services in hospitals.
