KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — The Health Ministry (MOH) expects the daily COVID-19 positive cases to return to double digits in May, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He hoped that the two-week enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) would help stabilise the numbers before an expected drop in daily cases after Jan 27.
“We hope in the two weeks of MCO, we will avoid a spike in cases.
“So, our expectation is that if we implement the MCO for four weeks, followed by a Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO), we may be able to achieve daily figures of double digits on May 11,” he said during the ministry’s COVID-19 Emergency media briefing that was held virtually yesterday.
He also said that the COVID-19 infectivity rate (Rt) or R-naught (R0), which had dropped from 1.2 to 1.06, was expected to drop further in the coming days.
As such, Dr Noor Hisham reminded the public to continue to comply with the standard operating procedure by always wearing face masks, maintaining physical distancing and washing their hands frequently.
“Today is exactly one year since we have battled COVID-19. Our mantra is still the same… we need a high rate of compliance. If Malaysians have a high compliance rate, we do not need the MCO at all.
“But because we relaxed restrictions on Dec 7, 2020, non-compliance shot up. So we have to enforce the MCO. We need to have high discipline by embracing the 3C of (avoiding) crowded, confined, close (spaces) and the 3W (wash, wear, warn),” he said.
