"I Fear The Worst Is Yet To Come"
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah shared his concerns amidst the high number of COVID-19 death cases recorded on a daily basis since the start of 2021.
By Sadho Ram — 10 Jan 2021, 11:07 AM
Past midnight, 10 January, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah took to social media to warn people that the "worst is yet to come" with regards to the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia
He used the COVID-19 fatalities in the country during the first nine months of 2020 and the first nine days of 2021 to highlight the gravity of the pandemic that has killed 542 people in Malaysia in less than a year.
"In [the] first nine months last year, we [had] less than 100 fatalities. This year, in only nine days, we already have 71 deaths," the Health DG wrote in the comments section of his Facebook page.
I fear the worst is yet to come.
He shared sombre photos of frontliners in protective suits surrounding deceased patients in body bags while noting that COVID-19 death cases have been increasing on a daily basis since the start of 2021
According to Dr Noor Hisham, it has been really difficult for the medical frontliners to manage the remains of COVID-19 patients
While hoping for people to understand the challenges and issues faced by each and every frontliners, he asked everyone to help the country by taking care of one another and their family members.
"May we all be protected from this disaster that is COVID-19," he wrote.
Over the week, he had warned that daily COVID-19 cases could reach up to 8,000 by mid-March if the infectivity rate increases
He shared two Susceptible-Exposed-Infective-Recovered (SEIR) epidemiological prediction graphs that show the possible number of daily cases if the R-naught (R0) remains at 1.1 or increases to 1.2.
According to the graph with the country's current R0 at 1.1, the number of daily cases should have only breached the 3,000 mark by the second week of February. However, Malaysia recorded its highest daily COVID-19 cases on 7 January, which reflects a higher infectivity rate should an upward trend continue.
The very next day, the country recorded 16 new deaths, making the tally a new record since 3 November last year when a total of 12 deaths were recorded.
