COVID-19 weekly round-up: CMCO lowers daily new case numbers

In fact, during the week under review, the number of new daily cases reported touched four figures on two days – Saturday Oct 24 (1,228) and Monday Oct 26 (1,240).

And, as has been the trend lately, Sabah accounted for the bulk of the new cases on those two occasions – 889 cases on Saturday and 927 cases on Monday.

After the past few weeks’ high numbers, yesterday’s new cases came as a relief. Over the 24-hour period up to noon yesterday, 649 new cases were recorded, 352 of which were in Sabah. Seven of the new cases were imported.

Malaysia’s total number of COVID-19 cases now stood at 30,090 and active cases 10,087.

The Ministry of Health, meanwhile, also deserves praise for the consistently high number of patients who have recovered and have been discharged from hospital over the week. Yesterday, 685 patients were discharged, bringing the cumulative total of recovered cases to 19,757 or 64.8 percent of total cases.

FATALITIES, OTHER CASES

After recording new fatalities for days in a row, no death was announced yesterday. The COVID-19 death toll now stood at 246 (0.8 percent of total cases).

On Wednesday, eight deaths were reported; Tuesday two; Monday seven; Sunday eight; and Saturday seven. Out of the 32 deaths reported this week, 30 occurred in Sabah and one each in Perak and Selangor.

Currently, 106 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit with 23 requiring respiratory aid.

New daily case numbers reported this week are as follows: 649 (yesterday), 801 (Wednesday), 835 (Tuesday), 1,240 (Monday), 823 (Sunday) and 1,228 (Saturday).

As for recovered cases, 685 were discharged yesterday, 573 (Wednesday), 674 (Tuesday), 691 (Monday), 579 (Sunday) and 671 (Saturday).

MUST BRING DOWN R0 VALUE

During his media briefing on Wednesday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the R-naught or R0 value for COVID-19 infectivity in Malaysia has been on the decline since the enforcement of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in certain states. (The R-naught value indicates the infectivity of a virus at the start of an outbreak within the community.)

The R0 value has reduced from 2.2 at the onset of the third wave to 1.5 last week and dropped further down to 1.2 yesterday.

Citing an example of the infectivity of the COVID-19 virus at an R0 value of 1.2, Dr Noor Hisham said if 100 were to be infected now, during the next cycle 120 will be infected.

He said the R0 value should be reduced further to less than 1.0 and if possible to 0.3.

“If we are able to lower it to 0.3, we can flatten the curve. Right now we are at the peak and in another three to four weeks, we will be able to reduce the case numbers and return to double-digit or maybe even single-digit figures,” he explained.

Dr Noor Hisham first announced Malaysia was facing the onset of the third wave of infections during his media briefing on Oct 2. On that day, the nation recorded 287 new cases.

LATEST STATUS ON NEW CLUSTERS

Yesterday, five new clusters were announced – two in Sabah, two in Selangor and one in Negeri Sembilan.

Sabah’s new clusters were Sakti cluster in Lahad Datu which has recorded 18 positive cases so far, and Tuguson cluster in Kota Belud that has reported 18 cases so far while 128 individuals are awaiting test results.

Selangor’s new clusters are Bah Medan cluster in Sepang which reported 20 cases so far, and Taman Laut cluster in Petaling which recorded six cases so far while 99 individuals were still awaiting results.

Negeri Sembilan’s new Taman Bunga cluster involves the districts of Seremban, Kuala Pilah and Jelebu and so far it has reported 23 cases.

In Sabah, out of the 352 new cases reported yesterday, 44 were from existing clusters and 11 from the new Sakti and Tuguson clusters.

In Selangor, out of the 132 new cases, 70 were from existing clusters and six from the new Taman Laut and Bah Medan clusters.

In Negeri Sembilan, out of the 43 new cases reported, 36 were from existing clusters. Kedah recorded 37 new cases from existing clusters while Kuala Lumpur and Labuan reported 21 and 17 new cases respectively.

Meanwhile, Penang reported 13 new cases, Johor 10, Sarawak eight and Perak five, while Pahang, Melaka, Terengganu and Putrajaya reported one new case each.

CMCO, EMCO, QUARANTINE

The CMCO that was enforced in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya on Oct 26 has been extended by another two weeks until Nov 9.

The CMCO in Labuan, which was supposed to end on Oct 30, has also been extended to Nov 13.

CMCO has also been enforced in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, starting Oct 28 until Nov 10. Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob said Putra Point in Nilai will be placed under Enhanced MCO (EMCO) as two workers' dormitories there were contributing to a spike in positive cases.

EMCO has been declared in three villages in Kudat, Sabah, namely Kampung Pengaraban, Kampung Tanjung Kapur and Kampung Landong Ayang, starting on Oct 30 up to Nov 12.

Meanwhile, between July 24 and Oct 28, a total of 56,699 individuals returned home from 36 countries through the nation’s international entry points and they were placed under compulsory 14-day quarantine at 65 hotels and 17 other premises.

GLOBAL COVID-19 STATISTICS

According to CoronaTracker (which cites figures from various agencies including the World Health Organisation), the total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide at the time of writing this article stood at 45,320,581 (42,048,648 cases at the same time last Friday) and 1,186,223 deaths (1,143,581 last Friday). The total number of recoveries stood at 32,992,305.

The United States continues to head the list of badly-hit nations with 9,212,767 cases (8,661,722 last Friday) and 234,177 deaths (222,754 last week).

India is on the second spot with 8,088,046 cases and 121,131 deaths.

Brazil is third with 5,496,402 cases and 159,033 fatalities. Russia is fourth with 1,581,693 cases and 27,301 deaths.

Another 44 countries (last week 43) have recorded cases exceeding 100,000, namely:

France 1,282,769 cases (36,020 deaths), Spain 1,238,922 (35,639), Argentina 1,143,800 (30,442), Colombia 1,053,122 (30,926), United Kingdom 965,340 (45,955), Mexico 912,811 (90,773), Peru 897,594 (34,362), South Africa 721,770 (19,164), Italy 616,595 (38,122), Iran 596,941 (34,113), Chile 507,050 (14,118 Germany 498,353 (10,435), Iraq 467,755 (10,815), Bangladesh 404,760 (5,886), Indonesia 404,048 (13,701), Philippines 376,935 (7,147), Turkey 370,832 (10,099), Ukraine 370,417 (6,868), Belgium 368,337 (11,170), Saudi Arabia 346,482 (5,363), Pakistan 331,108 (6,775), Holland 330,255 (7,258), Poland 319,205 (5,149) Israel 313,114 (2,508), Czechia 310,068 (2,862), Romania 229,040 (6,764), Canada 228,542 (10,074), Romania 222,040 (6,681), Morocco 212,038 (3,572), Equador 166,302 (12,662), Nepal 164,718 (904), Switzerland 145,044 (2,200), Bolivia 141,321 (8,694), Qatar 132,150 (231), Panama 132,045 (2,678), United Arab Emirates 130,336 (488), Portugal 132,616 (2,428), Dominican Republic 125,93 (2,234), Kuwait 124,66 (767), Sweden 121,167 (5,934), Oman 114,434 (1,208), Kazakhstan 111,100 (1,825), Egypt 107,209 (6,247), Costa Rica 106,553 (1,340) and Guatemala 106,790 (3,704).

China, where the outbreak was first reported at end-December 2019, is now on the 55th spot with 85,915 cases while its death toll remains unchanged at 4,634.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia have joined the countries with more than 100,000 cases. Next is Singapore with 57,994 cases while its death toll remains at 28. Myanmar, where COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly, has reported 49,072 cases and 1,172 deaths. (Last week at this time, Myanmar reported 41,008 cases and 1,005 deaths.)

Thailand has recorded 3,763 cases while its death toll remains at 59, followed by Vietnam with 1,173 cases and 35 deaths.

Cambodia’s cases rose to 290 and its death tally remains zero. Also unchanged are Brunei’s tally at 141 cases and two deaths, and Laos’ 23 cases and zero fatality.

COVID-19 BACKGROUND

According to the WHO website, its China country office was informed of cases of pneumonia that were detected in Wuhan on Dec 31, 2019. On Jan 7, the Chinese authorities confirmed that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted from human to human.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV).

A study of the virus’ genetic sequence suggested similarities to that seen in snakes and bats. China health officials identified the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan as the source of the transmission of the coronavirus.

On Feb 11, WHO announced the official name of the virus, COVID-19, which is an acronym for coronavirus 2019 – CO stands for corona, VI for virus and D for disease.

On Jan 30, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency. By then, it had spread to 18 countries and caused 170 deaths. On March 11, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO.

WHO has described the COVID-19 outbreak as much more dangerous than the A H1N1 Influenza, also known as Swine Flu.

Swine Flu, which occurred between January 2009 and August 2010, infected more than 1.6 million people and caused 18,449 fatalities.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.