PUTRAJAYA: Malaysians should be very concerned now as a total of 82,341 cases of Covid-19 infection in the country involve infants and children.
The grim figure was disclosed by Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba, who said of the total, 19,851 cases involved children below four years old; 8,237 cases (five to six); 26,851 (seven to 12) and 27,402 (13 to 17), and they were Covid-19 patients in categories 1, 2 and 3.
“No one is in the ICU (intensive care unit),” he said in a joint press conference on the development of the country’s immunisation exercise, with the Coordinating Minister of the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, today.
Expressing concern with the statistics, Dr Adham advised parents or guardians to be more responsible in protecting the group from being infected, such as by not taking their children to crowded places.
According to him, although there is no provision under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) that allows compounds to be imposed on parents who take children to crowded places, investigation papers can be opened.
On the number of screening tests conducted for the period from May 23 to 29, he said that a total of 774,863 individuals nationwide underwent the test, with 53,419 individuals testing positive for Covid-19.
Following the sudden increase in new cases, Dr Adham said that his ministry planned to expand screening testing using the Antigen Rapid Test Kit (RTK-Ag), with the assistance of the state governments.
“The Ministry of Health (MOH) will increase screening tests for close contacts, especially in the Klang Valley, by creating sampling centres in the community,” he said.
To increase the detection of Covid-19 positive cases in the community, he said that his ministry would increase monitoring of all symptomatic cases receiving treatment at MOH health facilities, as well as those with a history of comorbid diseases regardless of age.
He also expressed concern over the risk of death due to Covid-19, which is 0.45 per cent or 45 patients out of 10,000 positive cases facing the risk of death based on the rate currently recorded. — Bernama
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Children with Covid-19: A wake-call to all parties — UNICEF Malaysia
