KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): Covid-19 cases are expected to increase over the next two weeks before the situation stabilises, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
This comes as Malaysia reported its highest daily figure of 11,079 cases today.
Selangor, the most populous state, saw its daily figure jump to a record 5,263 (47.5% of the nation’s total), after reporting over 4,000 cases daily in the previous five days.
Kuala Lumpur has the second highest number of new infections at 1,521, followed by Negeri Sembilan (1,033), Kedah (497) and Sarawak (472).
“This has been a week and we anticipate that it will go up for a week or two, before cases will stabilise.
“With our lockdown measures, we saw our cases go down from 9, 000 to around 4, 000, but suddenly it has gone up again,” said Dr Noor Hisham at a virtual media briefing.
The director-general noted that Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan, which have areas placed under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO), contributed 7,817 cases or 70% of today’s cases.
The jump in new cases has come after the Health Ministry ramped up screening and close contact tracing in areas under EMCO.
“We will increase the targeted screening in EMCO areas. Yesterday, 52,115 RTK-AG tests were conducted, involving workplaces and communities.
Dr Noor Hisham said cases are expected to rise further over the next two weeks, especially with the emergence of the Delta variant. This variant, which originated in India, is more infectious and can spread faster via airborne transmission.
“The Delta variant has an infectivity rate of 5 to 8 in R0 value. In contrast, the Wuhan variant had an R0 value of 2.2 to 3.
“This means if the Delta variant infects 100 people, it could spread to 800 more.
The basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) projects the average number of people whom each new Covid-19 patient will infect. Rt means the effective reproduction number. An Rt of less than 1.0 means the infection is not spreading.
