STATE health authorities must not work in silos when fighting Covid-19, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said, adding that public health is a federal matter.

He said this at a press conference today in response to reports that the Health Ministry (MOH) had stopped sharing crucial data on Covid-19 cases.

“We would like to see the state work with our state Health Department. Work with our state Health Department and see how we can coordinate the activities rather than working in silos.

“I am sure our state Health Department will be more than happy to collaborate and cooperate with the state administration to look into how we can solve the issue.

“But health is under Act 342 (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act), and that is under the federal Health Ministry,” he said in Putrajaya today.

Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that the Selangor Task Force for Covid-19 (STFC) no longer receives granular data from MOH since early October, thus hobbling its efforts to contain the outbreak.

Noor Hisham responded yesterday by saying MOH will only share processed data and not raw files with state authorities to ensure better coordination.

Noor Hisham said the ministry would take a holistic approach to resolve issues with the state administration.

Malaysia today recorded 862 new cases, with Sabah once again reporting the highest number of daily cases at 673.

Besides Sabah, Selangor has also been recording an increasing number of cases daily in the third wave of the pandemic, which began in September, and today reported 132 cases out of the national daily total.

This takes the total number of Covid-19 cases in Selangor to 3,489.

Noor Hisham said the ministry had been concerned about cases in Selangor even before certain districts in the state were labelled as red zones. 

“We already knew the infection rate or R-naught (R0) in Selangor was about 1.9. So, from 2.2 (brought) down to 1.9 and now at around 1.48,” he said. – October 20, 2020.