KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 21 -- The current movement control order (MCO) can work to contain Malaysia's runaway Covid-19 infections, health experts said when stressing that weak compliance could put this at risk.

Despite Malaysia's persistently high numbers of new daily cases after the first week of the MCO, they told Malay Mail that the measure would ultimately pay dividends.

The effectiveness of the MCO has been called into question by two days of new daily cases breaching the 4,000-case mark: once on January 16 and again yesterday.

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Prof Datuk Dr M. Subramaniam stressed that the MCO will need time to be effective.

"The Health Ministry hopes the situation will improve in four weeks. Restrictions...