Infectivity rate nationwide improved to less than one - Health DG

 

The infectivity rate, also known as the R0 (pronounced R-naught) value, is now less than 1.0 nationwide, said Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“If the R0 value stayed at 1.0, it was projected that we would get 965 cases today, but instead we had 834 cases.

“This means that the R0 is less than one, so maybe it is around 0.95 or 0.96,” said Noor Hisham in his press conference at the Health Ministry in Putrajaya today.

Meanwhile, he said the R0 value in Selangor is now 1.23 whereas it is 1.0 in Sabah.

R0 is a term indicating how contagious an infectious disease is. It is also known as the reproduction number. It tells us, on average, how many people an infected person can infect.

Previously, he said the R0 value nationwide was around 2.2 at the start of the third wave of Covid-19 in Malaysia.

After the implementation of the conditional movement control order (MCO) as well as enhanced MCO in several targeted areas, he said the R0 value had gone down to 1.5 within two weeks, then to 1.0, and now to less than 1.0.

“So we hope that in these two weeks, we can increase our public health activities and if we can control (the spread of Covid-19), then in two or three weeks, we can decrease the infectivity rate in Sabah specifically and also in the whole country,” he said.

He also noted that the situation in Sabah has improved, as the positive detection rate in the state, which was previously much higher than the nationwide rate, has decreased and come much closer to the nationwide rate.

Previously, the positive detection rate in the state was around 5 percent, but it is now 1.9 percent.

Nationwide, the positive detection rate stands at 1.7 percent.

“Certainly it shows improvement because we have done public health activities for the last two weeks,” Noor Hisham said. - Mkini