Obey The CMCO Or There Will Be A Spike In COVID-19 Cases

obey the cmco or there will be a spike in covd-19 casesPhoto: Twitter RapidKL

The government recently announced another month-long Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) and while the number of COVID-19 cases is gradually decreasing, it’s now more crucial than ever for everyone to do their part in containing the spread of COVID-19, as people slowly resume their normal lives again.

According to Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, strict adherence to the Health Ministry’s SOP during the CMCO is crucial in preventing the rise of COVID-19 infections, noting that the success of the earlier phases of the MCO resulted in the COVID-19 “R0” value going down from 3.5 to 0.3.

R0 (pronounced r-nought) is the measurement of the infectivity of a virus at the beginning of an outbreak in the community, that 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 be decreased if proper precautionary measures are taken continuously.

“Likewise, this value can rise again if the public becomes complacent and non-compliant.

“Lowering the value of R to less than one continuously will help to end an outbreak,” said Dr Noor Hisham at the ministry’s daily COVID-19 press conference yesterday.

On the contrary, if people fail to obey the SOP, Dr Noor Hisham warned that it may result in the increase of the R0 value to 1.6 and trigger an exponential surge of new cases.

“So, whether or not we go back to the MCO all depends on the ability of Malaysians to observe social discipline,” he said.

“By May 18, which is 14 days after the conditional MCO is in place, we’ll see if the preventive measures are working.”

The R0 value is also a deciding factor for governments to open up more economic sectors.

“If we can bring the R0 down further, then rest assured we will open up more sectors. We will also consider (opening up the) social and education sectors,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that the reopening of borders will be the “last option and resort” as many factors need to be considered.

obey the cmco or there will be a spike in covd-19 casesPhoto: Facebook Ministry of Health

The country has recorded 360 COVID-19 cases from Malaysians after they returned from abroad, and from that, 88 tested negative during the first swab test but later tested positive during the second swab test on the 13th day of their quarantine.

“Because of that, we are very concerned about opening up the borders,” he said, adding that there will be strict SOP such as imposing a two week-quarantine upon arrival.

As of yesterday (13 May), there are 37 new cases, making the country’s total to 6,779 cases, with 5,281 of them having been discharged from healthcare facilities.

By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya

RELATED ARTICLES