PUTRAJAYA, April 25 — In its bid to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has screened 14,187 foreign nationals so far, with 676 positive cases, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
“We screened the foreign nationals in the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) areas as well as those who are considered high-risk, with links to the Seri Petaling gathering,” he said at the daily press conference on COVID-19 here today.
He said the ministry had so far used a targeted approach to screen those groups and that not all foreigners in the country were screened although they were considered to be at risk of triggering a COVID-19 cluster.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham denied that MOH hospitals had postponed cancer treatments to give way for the treatment of COVID-19 cases as reported by a foreign media.
He said the postponement could be due to other issues, such as the blood test making it not suitable for the patients to undergo chemotherapy treatment.
Thus, he said cancer treatment at MOH hospitals would go on although the country was facing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commenting on reports of Menara City One residents alleging that health workers did not adopt proper guidelines while conducting last-minute screening yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said there was a congestion when residents from the two blocks came down at the same time.
However, he said that with the cooperation of security teams, the MOH succeeded in managing the situation in accordance with the standard operating procedures (SOP).
