Dr Noor Hisham refutes allegations of fake Covid-19 figures

PUTRAJAYA: Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has also refuted allegations that the Covid-19 figures on Saturday (Oct 24) were inaccurate.

Earlier Monday (Oct 26), the Health Ministry denied the report that it faked the numbers.

He said the Health Ministry's daily Covid-19 data is collected every day at noon from all states using a public health information system.

Dr Noor Hisham said this in response to allegations on social media that the number of Covid-19 cases on Oct 24 of 1,228 cases was fake.

"This data is not being manipulated. This is the facts that we have. We use this system from day one. "It cannot be that when the data shows zero or one-digit figures, we accept it, but when it shows a figure of more than 1,000, we reject the data."

"This data is collected from every state through the public health information system," he said during his daily press briefing on Monday (Oct 26).

Dr Noor Hisham added that every state inputs their respective datas into the system, adding that the ministry will then collate it and discuss the issues.

"It does not just come from me, but it is from the whole team that collects these data," he said.

The viral message on WhatsApp claimed that the Health Ministry had faked the number of Covid-19 cases on Oct 24, which saw 1,228 cases being reported.

The message also claimed that Dr Noor Hisham was unhappy with instructions by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to fake the number of cases, adding that the government wanted to use this to push the case for declaring a state of emergency in the country, thus suspending Parliament.

The message was accompanied by a screenshot of a report on the cancellation of the Health DG’s daily press conference on Sunday (Oct 25).

Dr Noor Hisham clarified that he was unable to hold his usual daily press conference as he had to be at Istana Negara to share with the Council of Rulers about the ministry's actions in combating the Covid-19 pandemic since December last year.

"I gave them the latest updates. They (the Council of Rulers) also asked about the vaccine. There are currently nine vaccines in phase three of testing but there are no complete reports yet. The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) is looking into this," he said.