Early sign of another Covid-19 wave

KUALA LUMPUR: There is an early sign that Malaysia could face another wave of the Covid19 epidemic as the effective reproduction number (Rt) of Covid-19 infections is surging back up to 1.0.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah urged Malaysians to follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) and go for vaccination.

“When the Rt is at 1.0, it means cases are stagnant and not dropping like we want them to. This could be an early sign that cases may start to rise again,” he said yesterday.

Dr Noor Hisham explained that the resumption of cross country travel was not the cause of rising infections, rather it was poor SOP compliance and gatherings in crowded spaces.

The number of cases in the country has generally dropped over the past three months a er an all-time record of 24,599 on Aug 26, but Dr Noor Hisham said the re-opening of state borders on Oct 11 should serve as a lesson as cases have been above the 6,000 mark for the past three days.

The number of new infections increased to 6,517 cases yesterday from 6,323 on Thursday.

On the other hand, recovered cases also showed an increase yesterday a er 6,517 recoveries were recorded compared to 5,337 cases on Thursday.

Dr Noor Hisham said generally, Covid-19 transmissions in Malaysia were still under control but added that precautionary measures should continue to be taken.

He said Covid-19 daily cases, recoveries and fatalities began to decline around the 36th epidemiological week, in line with the increase in vaccination rates through the Covid-19 National Immunisation programme (PICK) that kicked off on Feb 24.

Dr Noor Hisham said up to Nov 11, more than 75.7 per cent (24,730,649) of the Malaysian population have been fully vaccinated, while 95.1 per cent (22,258,551 adults) have received their full dosage. “The launch of the Covid-19 vaccination exercise on a major scale has succeeded in reducing the number of cases and hospital admissions.”

When the Rt is at 1.0, it means cases are stagnant and not dropping like we want them to. This could be an early sign that cases may start to rise again.

Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah