PETALING JAYA: The public does not have to worry about the increase in Covid-19 cases as the targeted approach method has shown a positive effect in detecting the virus, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

"The public does not have to worry about the increase of new cases following an aggressive and proactive targeted approach by the government as this shows the effectiveness of this method.

"The detected cases are being isolated and treated at hospitals to ensure that the virus is not spread in the community," he said during his daily press briefing on Sunday (May 10).

Dr Noor Hisham said based on its targeted approach method, the ministry has identified targeted groups to be screened.

He said these were the Sri Petaling participants and their close contacts, students and employees at madrasah dan tahfiz linked to the Sri Petaling cluster, and Malaysians who have returned from overseas.

He said this also includes its healthcare workers, residents at enhanced movement control order (MCO) locality, the Kuala Lumpur wholesale market (PBKL) and markets linked to it, and also foreign workers working in construction areas in red zones as well as old folks home.

Dr Noor Hisham also noted that Covid-19 cases in the country are under controlled.

"We have observed and we have found that the cases are under control even though there are new clusters.

"What we need to do right now is that we need to look at the latest cases every day of newly detected cases and also on whether Malaysians are complying with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that have been implemented," he said.

He said if there is high compliance by Malaysians to adhere to the SOPs, then Covid-19 cases would reduce.

Dr Noor Hisham added that in another week or two, the effects of the implementation of the conditional MCO would be seen.

He also said even though there were three enhanced MCO areas, acute case detection have been conducted and new clusters have been identified.

"We hope we would be able to maintain a two-digit number of cases every day. Our goal is to reduce the number of cases to achieve a one-digit number of new cases in the next week or two," he said.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/05/10/covid-19-govt039s-targeted-detection-method-is-working-says-health-dg