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PUTRAJAYA: Strict adherence to the Ministry of Health’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) during the Conditional Movement Control (OLS) order is crucial to prevent Covid-19 infection rates from increasing.
Chief Health Officer Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said the success of the previous phases of the MCO resulted in the Covid-19 “R0” value dropping from 3.5 to 0.3.
R0 (pronounced r-nothing) refers to the infectivity of a virus at the beginning of an outbreak in the community, which is the average of how many people can be infected by the positive case.
“For example, if the value of R is 4, this means that each positive case can spread the disease to four others.
“The value of R can decrease if adequate precautionary measures are taken continuously.
“In the same way, this value can increase again if the public becomes complacent and not satisfied.
“Lowering the value of R to less than one will continually help end an outbreak,” Dr. Noor Hisham said at the Covid-19 ministry’s daily news conference here yesterday, where he showed a graph detailing the Covid model- 19 of the National Institute. of health.
Dr. Noor Hisham said that if people don’t adhere to PCOS, it can lead to an increase in the value from R0 to 1.6, which in turn will result in an exponential increase in new cases.
“So whether we go back to the MCO or not, it all depends on the ability of Malaysians to observe social discipline,” he said.
The R0 value will also help the government to decide whether or not to open more economic sectors, including barber shops.
“By May 18, which is 14 days after the conditional MCO is in effect, we will see if the preventive measures are working.
“If we can further reduce R0, then rest assured that we will open more sectors.
“We will also consider (opening) the social and educational sectors,” he said.
On reopening the borders, Dr. Noor Hisham said such a move will be the “last option and recourse”, as many factors must be considered.
He said the country recorded 360 Covid-19 cases from Malays after they returned from abroad, and of that, 88 tested negative on the first swab.
He said 88 only tested positive on the second sample on day 13 of his quarantine.
“So we are very concerned about opening the borders,” he said.
He added that there will be a strict SOP, such as the imposition of a two-week quarantine upon arrival.
Previously, it announced 37 new cases, bringing the country’s total to 6,779 cases, of which 5,281 (or 77.9%) were discharged from health centers.
There were also two new deaths and 58 more recoveries, which means that there are only 1,387 active cases currently under treatment in hospitals.
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