Malaysia on a trajectory for higher Covid-19 cases - Health DG

COVID-19 | The country's current trajectory suggests more Covid-19 cases ahead, said Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Noor Hisham said this is based on the current RO value (pronounced as R nought) of 1.5.

Noor Hisham said the R-value is an indication of how many other people a Covid-19 patient can infect, or in short, the infectivity rate.

"For example, if the R-value is four, it means a person who is positive with Covid-19 can infect four other people during the infectious period.

"This chain of infection will grow exponentially if efforts are not undertaken to break them," he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Noor Hisham explained that during the start of this third wave of Coivd-19 cases, the R-value was at 2.2 on Sept 20.

"In the four weeks since then, this value has been reduced to 1.5," he said.

He said while the Health Ministry's efforts are paying off, the R-value must be below one in order to break the chain of infection...