More than a third of red zone districts are no longer red

At least 11 of the 28 districts declared red zones for recording more than 40 Covid-19 cases since the start of the outbreak have much fewer active cases as many patients have recovered.

A review of data released daily by the Ministry of Health found that in four of these red zones, there are only 10 or less active cases. Active cases refer to cases still in treatment.

This indicates that the bulk of patients in these 11 red zone districts have been discharged after recovery.

For example in Rembau, Negri Sembilan, there are only four Covid-19 patients still treated in hospital. This is a far cry compared to the total of 53 cases recorded in the district since the start of the outbreak.

This is similar to Hilir Perak where the cumulative figure of 65 recorded positive cases gives little comfort. However, as of April 17, only two cases remain active.

Nevertheless, none of these districts is out of the woods yet given the 14-day virus incubation period and they have not gone more than one week without recording a new case.

A Flourish chart

Last week Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry may amend the way it classifies zones according to active cases, instead of cumulative cases.

It currently classifies districts as red if there are more than 40 cases, orange if there are 21 to 40 cases, yellow if there are 1 to 20 cases and green if there have been no cases reported there.

“If not, all the districts will eventually be red zones,” he told reporters at the ministry’s daily press conference.

Since then, most state health departments have released information on active cases per district on their official Facebook pages.

The state health departments also participate in the District Risk Reduction Programme (Program Pengurangan Risiko Daerah) which aims to turn districts into green zones by ensuring there are no new cases in the past 14 days.

States and territories which do not publish this information are Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Sarawak.

Exit strategy

On Wednesday, Noor Hisham said the new classification is part of the ministry’s exit strategy, as movement restriction policies may differ according to these classifications.

He said states like Penang, Kedah and Perlis have the potential to be declared green states, given that there have been no new cases reported there in the past few days.

However, they will need to maintain this record for 14 consecutive days before they can be declared free of Covid-19, he said.

The last case reported in Kedah was on April 15, while Penang and Perlis last reported new cases on April 14.

There have been 94 cases reported in Kedah since the start of the outbreak, but only 11 of those are still in treatment as of yesterday.

Most of its districts have no active cases, and none are red zone districts.

Similarly, Penang recorded 119 cases since the start of the outbreak but now only has 15 active cases.

Perlis had 18 cases since the start of the outbreak and only five are active.

To date, about a third of all districts in Malaysia have not recorded any new cases in the past fortnight.

Protecting the green zones

Noor Hisham said the ministry aims to protect the green zones, which could be a village, a subdistrict (mukim) or a district, by imposing strict border controls.

This implies barring non-residents from entering these green zones and vice versa - a reverse of the enhanced movement control order (Emco), where residents in areas severely hit are barred from leaving the zone and vice versa.

Earlier, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said rules may be vastly different for those living in the green zones compared to red zones, where tighter movement controls may be imposed.

At present, all districts are under partial lockdown under the movement control order (MCO) which expires on April 28. The government will next week announce if an extension will be made. - Mkini