PUTRAJAYA: The lack of awareness on Covid-19 in rural areas in Sabah – which has the highest number of cases in the country – has made it difficult for frontliners to treat positive cases inland, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah
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At a press conference Wednesday, he said the level of education and understanding of the disease among rural communities in Sabah was significantly lower when compared to people in the peninsula.
He said this made it challenging for the Ministry to conduct contact tracing and convince positive cases to admit themselves into hospital for further treatment.
“There is a refusal to go to hospital, especially for those who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. They try to run away when they see the frontliners coming.”
Based on feedback from health personnel on the ground, he added that the dense forest environment inland made it easier for these cases to “escape” treatment.
“We are seeing some positive signs based on what we’ve done, in terms of isolating the positive cases and their close contacts. Screening, public health intervention and surveillance has been carried out vigorously at the ground level.
“We have to work closely with the police and the army to see how we can best contain the infection.”
Noor Hisham also said the country’s rate of infection (R0), had since dropped from 1.5 to 1.2 in the last two days.
He added that the R0 in Sabah and Selangor had also been reduced to 1.3 and 1.2 respectively, as a result of the Statewide conditional movement control order (CMCO).
Noor Hisham was also asked why Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Dr Khairuddin Aman Razali was issued a RM1,000 fine, despite not receiving the 14B form to undergo quarantine after his return from Turkey.
He said he stood by his statement on Aug 25, when he said the matter should be handled by the police investigating the case.
Khairuddin had come under fire in August for violating the mandatory 14-day quarantine rule when he attended a Dewan Rakyat meeting shortly after returning from Turkey on July 7.
Earlier Wednesday, police said they were instructed by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to classify Khairuddin’s case as “no further action” (NFA) since there was no clear evidence that gave basis for a charge under Act 342.
Bukit Aman CID Chief Datuk Huzir Mohamed said the decision was made as the Minister had not been issued the form to undergo quarantine upon returning to the country.
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