Covid-19 infection rate going down, says Noor Hisham

 

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said limiting the movement of people is crucial as the virus is already in the community and many could be carrying it unknowingly.

PUTRAJAYA: Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says the Covid-19 infection rate, also known as R0, seemed to be on a downward trend thanks to partial lockdowns in certain states.

He said Malaysia’s R0 stood at 2.2 at the start of a third wave of infections in September, but the infection rate is now around 0.95.

Despite the massive spike in cases reported on Oct 24 and Oct 26, and most recently last Saturday, the trajectory of cases in the following days has been below the health ministry’s projections going by the R0.

“However, we still have to increase our activities at the ground level and take all precautionary measures. We hope to bring down the R0 to 0.5-0.6.

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“When the recent conditional movement control order was implemented in Selangor, there were a lot of objections. But it was a preemptive move because of the high R0 and the density and mobility of the population,” he said at his daily media briefing today.

He added that limiting the movement of people is crucial as the virus is already in the community and many could be carrying it unknowingly.

Noor Hisham also said the recent trend of cases in Selangor seemed to be coming from the southern part of the state bordering Negeri Sembilan, which recorded a spike of 260 cases today.

He added that the sooner the curve of Covid-19 cases was flattened, the faster these states under CMCO can return to the more relaxed Recovery MCO.

“There is no vaccine yet; we only have public health intervention. The health ministry and government cannot contain the infections without the cooperation and collaboration of the public,” he said. - FMT