Speaking at a press conference today, he explained that this involved closely monitoring international borders to identify imported cases, as well as following up on public hospitals’ facilities and capacities.

Other measures include enhancing public health protocols for identifying and treating cases; protecting vulnerable groups; strategic communications; and empowering the community to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP).

Noor Hisham added that the health ministry would continue to follow the same principle applied by the World Health Organization (WHO), where “no one is safe until everyone is safe”.

“So we are looking at combining public health measures and vaccinations to eventually achieve herd immunity,” he said.

Noting that the decreasing number of daily cases was “very encouraging”, he reminded the public not to become complacent and to continue complying with the SOPs.

Earlier today, WHO had warned that it was unrealistic for the global pandemic to end by this year, although hospitalisation and death rates could decrease.

However, its emergencies director Michael Ryan gave an assurance that the virus remains in control, despite new cases increasing globally in the past week after six consecutive weeks of decline.