Malaysia’s R-naught now 1.1 —Health D-G

PUTRAJAYA: The Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (R0) for Malaysia is now 1.1, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the RO had been reduced from 2.2 when the third wave started on Sept 20 to 1.1 yesterday following the enforcement of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

He also said that based on the 2.2 projection, daily cases were expected to hit 4,500 but the CMCO in the Klang Valley and Sabah managed to lower the RO to 1.5.

“There were 1,228 cases on Oct 24 and 1,240 cases on Oct 26… exceeding 1.5. But if we look at the average now it is less than 1.5.

“We find that the RO now has reduced to 1.1. This shows that in the two weeks that the CMCO was implemented, from Oct 14 until now, we have brought down the RO, meaning the infectivity rate is decreasing,” he said yesterday.

Even then, Dr Noor Hisham said there was a need to increase activities to reduce the RO to less than 1.0.

As such, he reminded the people to continue to cooperate in breaking the chain of Covid19 infection by complying with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and staying at home.

He said than an RO of less than 1.0 would help to flatten the curve of infection cases.

On deaths occurring outside of hospitals, or brought-indead (BID), he said 44 cases were reported as of yesterday, of which nine were during the second wave and the remaining during the third wave. — Bernama