Page 10 - NIH Bulletin Vol. 16 December 2020

Bulletin National Institutes of Health, Malaysia Vol 16 • 2020

DATA MANAGEMENT

OF COVID-19 CASES IN

SELANGOR STATE HEALTH

DEPARTMENT

COVID-19 has rapidly spread across the globe since its first reported
case in late 2019. In Malaysia, till 12 May 2020, there were 6,726 cases
recorded with 109 deaths reported (1.62% mortality rate – lower than
worldwide mortality rate). The Malaysian government had activated
initial Movement Control Order (MCO) on 18 March 2020 with
2-weekly extension till 12 May 2020, and then extended with 1-month
extension till 9 June 2020, considering major celebrations among
Malaysian population in May 2020 including Wesak Day and Eidul Fitri.

Selangor state became the initial epicenter of COVID-19 in Malaysia
with the highest number of recorded cases, mostly from Petaling and
Hulu Langat districts, due to Executive Cluster and Sri Petaling Tabligh
Cluster.

Considering the rapid spread in Selangor area, a team from Institute
for Public Health (IPH), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Malaysia,
which was led by Dr. Shubash Shander and Dr. Chong Zhuo Lin (NIH
team) had offered to help on data management of COVID-19 cases
in Petaling District Health Office. The NIH team developed a data
capture system that enabled ongoing descriptive analysis of variables
of interest to assist local management of cases and clusters. All cases
and data reported were cleaned, and any discrepancy was verified with
the district health office, to ensure quality data.
Based on the collected data, the team produced the demographic
(nationality, sex, age, ethnicity) and clinical characteristics (symptoms
of the patients, co-morbidities, severity). The incubation period was
calculated and the epidemic curve plotted based on date of onset of
symptoms. This information was crucial to the district health office to
decide their strategies to contain the disease.

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