COVID-19: MOH actions lower R0 below 1.0 - Health DG

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the results were achieved by allowing the economic sector to function but slowing or delaying other activities either in social, education or sports sectors in the red zone areas.

"If we use R0 1.0, by rights for yesterday and today we should get 950 reported cases but we have less than 950, in fact 799 yesterday and 659 today.

"This means that if we follow the projection of R0 1.0 then what we have is less than 1.0," he said at a daily press conference on the development of COVID-19 here today.

Noor Hisham said in these two weeks, the MOH will intensify the management of COVID-19 patients and field action activities to curb the spread and break the chain of infection in the country.

"We also need the full cooperation of Malaysians to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and most importantly stay at home. If you have to leave the house, please comply with the SOPs set," he said.

He said that if all parties comply with the SOPs, the MOH can flatten or level R0 to be less than 1.0, ideally to 0.3.

He stressed that the matter is not impossible, for example in Kedah, which had a big spike in cases with the existence of many clusters, but today only two cases are reported in the state.

He said that it is the result of public health actions and screenings focused on suspected areas and zones as well as the implementation of the administrative Enhanced Movement Control Order.

"In the Klang Valley and Selangor, we can also control and prevent COVID-19 infection if we use the same method. We don't have a vaccine yet and there is no cure, but we have a public health method for us to manage to break the chain of infection," he added.