KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — The fluctuations in daily new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is actually a sign of success and not failure, Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah clarified today.

He said certain spikes in number of new cases were due to active testing in enhanced movement control order (EMCO) zones, and the Health Ministry’s focus on localities and cluster groups.

"The phases one and two of MCO have helped a lot. We are seeing fluctuation in cases past few days because the increase in numbers comes from active tracing in EMCO areas.

"So it’s not a failure but instead it is a success to enter these areas of locality and hotspots, and detect active cases. So because of these tracings, the figures increase.

"We no longer have cases like we use to have from different isolated areas, for example like the figures 300 daily we use to have,” he explained.

He further said all states like Kedah, Perlis, Penang, and Kelantan has shown a decrease.

"So we are still concentrating on all the clusters and locality now. After Sri Petaling cluster, tahfiz school students are our next priority,” he added.

Earlier in his daily briefing this evening, Dr Noor Hisham announcer the number of cases have fallen to the lowest since March 14, with just 85 more cases reported today, and this brings the total Covid-19 cases to 5,072.

The last time Malaysia reported new cases in the double digits was on March 14, when 35 positive Covid-19 cases were recorded,

Dr Noor Hisham also reported one new death, bringing the toll death to 83.

He also said 169 more patients have recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 2,647 people.

He added that this shows a recovery rate or 52.2 per cent, the first time more than half of the infected people have recovered.

The number of patients being treated at the intensive care units stands at 56 of which 32 required breathing assistance.