Malaysia will consider reopening several economic sectors based on existing data. The Director-General of Health, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysians, in general, have been compliant with the standard operating procedures (SOP) issued by the Ministry to curb the spread of Covid 19 infections. He added that the primary focus now will be shifted to compliance rate among non-Malaysians.
“To date, eight days have passed since we celebrated Hari Raya and there is no exponential surge in new cases among Malaysians. This shows that Malaysians are compliant with the SOP. “And we expect the following week to remain as it is with no surge in cases. If that is the case, then we may consider relaxing of movement for more sectors involving Malaysians,” he said in his daily Covid-19 press briefing in Kuala Lumpur.
Datuk Dr Noor Hisham said with Malaysians complying with the existing SOPs, this would also mean that the infectivity rate or R-Naught (R0) will be less than 0.3, but would hover above 0.3 if foreigners were taken into account. R0 is a mathematical term that indicates how contagious and infectious disease is. It’s also referred to as the reproduction number. As infection is transmitted to new people, it reproduces itself. It tells the average number of people who will contract a contagious disease from one person with that disease, thereby reducing the RO value to less than 1 continuously will help to end the outbreak of the disease.
“What is important now is the focus on foreigners who should be obeying the SOPs like Malaysians. That is crucial. “But we also need to look at issues they faced such as accommodation and environment. This means that employers must ensure their workers take precautionary measures and follow the SOPs.
