THE fight to contain the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus will continue despite the recovery movement control order (RMCO), said Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. 

He said the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 or Act 342 will be used to monitor the situation.

The situation has been under control since the R0, or the reproductive rate, of the virus has been at 0.3 weeks after Hari Raya Aidilfitri, compared with the R0 of 3.55 prior to the enforcement of the MCO.

“We will still monitor and continue surveillance and our activities from June 10 to August 31. If we find an infection somewhere, we will conduct an enhanced MCO or semi-enhanced MCO. 

“If, once we reach August 31, our cases are still in the single and double digits, we can plan our exit strategy by using the Act 342,” he said while reiterating that the country has not moved towards an exit strategy yet and that this was merely a soft-landing approach. 

If compliance to standard operating procedures is high even by the end of the RMCO, Noor Hisham said Putrajaya could consider relaxing border controls. 

However, Noor Hisham said while the ministry still has high hopes for the creation of a vaccine, it is still possible to beat the virus without one.

This he said was evident in previous outbreaks of coronaviruses, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS COV), both of which do not have a vaccine. 

“There is a possibility that without a vaccine, we can still break the chain of infection by adhering to SOPs and public health recommendations,” he said. 

The government has lifted the conditional MCO and replaced it with the RMCO effective June 10 until August 31.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the end of the CMCO, which saw a relaxation of strict shutdown measures imposed by the original MCO issued on March 18 to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Restrictions on interstate travel, some religious gatherings and meetings are among those to be lifted in the latest version of the order. – June 7, 2020.