KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) believes another round of Movement Control Order (MCO) is needed to control the Covid-19 pandemic.

MMA president Professor Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said this should be considered especially for the Klang Valley as there have been no signs of improvement in the number of coronavirus cases.

It is more important for an MCO to be enforced in the Klang Valley as hospitals are already running out of beds in their Intensive Care Unit (ICU) wards, he said.

"If cases are too widespread and hospitals overwhelmed, an MCO will need to be reintroduced for the affected areas," he told the New Straits Times today. 

In implementing the MCO, he proposed for the government not to ease restrictions until an infectivity target rate of 0.5 is achieved.

He said the government had previously lifted the MCO restrictions even before its aim was achieved, resulting in a continuous spike in Covid-19 cases to date.

"Since it was lifted, we have not been able to flatten the curve. We should not be lifting restrictions when cases are rising," he added.

For now, he urged the government to ban all gatherings and restore the work-from-home order in areas where cases are spiking.

More stringent Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are also needed for the next MCO.

"We saw many customers not observing the one-metre physical distancing," he cited as an example.

A total of 2,500 new Covid-19 cases were recorded today, with seven states reporting three-digit figures.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2021/05/687599/mma-mco-needed-klang-valley