IT is possible to break the chain of Covid-19 infections in Malaysia by mid-July if the spread of the coronavirus among foreign workers is controlled, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“(The) experience we have now is that if we can control the (infection among) foreign workers. Rest assured, we can achieve the target of our modelling and the projection to break the chain of Covid-19 in this country by mid-July,” he told reporters in Putrajaya today.

He said the Health Ministry had projected that the number of cases among citizens would have been in the single digits by today, but new infections have surged in the past few days due to the discovery of new cases at Immigration detention centres.

Yesterday, Malaysia saw a record high number of new infections with 277 cases, of which 271 involved foreigners.

“Today we have actually projected that we can see single digits for Malaysians but because of the infections at detention centres, we have a surge in cases. But, nonetheless, it is contained,” he added.

“We do have challenges and they involve the foreign workers.”

He said there is a need to look into the lodging and compliance to standard operating procedures (SOP) among legal foreign workers.

Malaysians on the other hand, said Noor Hisham, had adhered to the SOPs well.

The movement-control order (MCO) and the subsequent conditional MCO had also been successful in flattening the curve, he said.

On another note, he added that the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act will be used to monitor the situation once more sectors are opened up and Malaysia enters the recovery phase.

The number of new infections today stood at 19, after reaching a record high of 277 yesterday. This brings the total number of infections to 8,266.

As for recoveries, 51 people have been discharged from hospital as of noon today, with the total at 6,610, or 80% of the cumulative total of infections

One death was reported after two weeks, bringing the national death toll to 116. – June 5, 2020.