KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The number of Malaysian districts in the green zone — or without any active Covid-19 cases currently — has increased yet again, this time to 65 districts, including the entirety of Perlis, the latest figures from the Health Ministry show.

In the Health Ministry's figures released today, the increase in new green zones for Covid-19 in Malaysia as of April 21 (yesterday) includes eight districts in the six states of Perak, Negri Sembilan, Perak, Pahang, Kelantan, Sabah.

Two types of green zones

The Health Ministry's daily nationwide map lists the number of Covid-19 cases in each district for two categories: total cumulative cases or accumulated cases so far, as well as the active cases for the day.

Under the Health Ministry's definition, the number of active cases is arrived at by deducting deaths and recoveries from the total cumulative cases.

The same colour code is applied to both categories of cumulative cases and active cases, namely green zones (no Covid-19 cases), yellow zones (1-20 cases), orange zones (21-40 cases), and the most severe category of red zones (41 cases and above).

This means that a district which is a yellow, orange or red zone in terms of total cumulative cases reported can become a green zone, if the number of active Covid-19 cases go down to zero when patients there recover.

The new green zones

The entire state of Perlis is the second least affected among all states and federal territories in Malaysia, with just 18 Covid-19 cases recorded so far.

Perlis, which is also a district by itself under the Health Ministry, became a green zone on April 21 when it recorded zero active cases, down from four active cases on April 20.

Based on the Health Ministry's data as of April 21 noon, the other districts that are now newly added to the list of green zones with zero active cases are four districts in Pahang (Bera, Cameron Highlands, Temerloh, Rompin), one district each in Perak (Manjung), Negri Sembilan (Jempol), Kelantan (Pasir Mas), Sabah (Tambunan).

This is due to the number of active cases in these districts dropping to zero on April 21, down from the initial number of active cases recorded on April 20 (Manjung — three, Tambunan — two, Jempol, Bera, Cameron Highlands, Temerloh, Rompin, Pasir Mas — one each).

Green zones on upward trend

Based on the Health Ministry’s data, the number of green zones — districts without any previously recorded or without active Covid-19 cases — has been increasing steadily, up from just 47 districts on April 18, to 52 districts (April 19), 56 districts (April 20) and to the 65 districts on April 21.

This positive trend in districts with zero active Covid-19 cases is in line with the relatively high number of daily recoveries in recent weeks during the movement control order period.

The number of daily recoveries have also been higher than the number of new Covid-19 cases recorded daily on many occasions — 12 times — in recent weeks during the MCO.

The number of new Covid-19 cases has also been remarkably low in the past few days — 54 new cases (April 18), 84 new cases (April 19), the lowest during the MCO period at 36 (April 20), and 57 (April 21).

Red zone with the most number of active cases

As a whole, in terms of active cases as of April 21, the number of districts in the yellow zone has decreased to 62, while there are now seven orange zones and 14 red zones.

As of April 21, the district with the most number of active cases in the whole country is the Lembah Pantai district in Kuala Lumpur with 347 active cases. (The Lembah Pantai district — which covers the three parliamentary constituencies Seputeh, Bukit Bintang, and Lembah Pantai — also happens to be the top red zone nationwide in terms of total cumulative cases for 19 consecutive days now, at 634 cases as of April 21).

After the Lembah Pantai district, the top red zones in terms of active case are the Kuching district in Sarawak at 217 active cases, Selangor's Petaling district (106), Negri Sembilan's Seremban district (100), followed by Hulu Langat (96), Kepong (87), Kluang (86), Johor Bahru (73), Kuantan (71), Melaka Tengah (60),  Kota Samarahan (59), Titiwangsa (58), Klang (51) and new red zone on April 21 in terms of active case — Cheras (43).

Total cumulative cases

Based on the total cumulative cases of each district as of April 21, the number of red zones remain at 30, the number of orange zones remain at 17, and the number of green zones where no cases have been recorded stand at 27 (up from 26 as the Lawas district has been reclassified as having zero cases) when compared to April 20.

As of April 21, there have so far been 5,482 Covid-19 cases reported in Malaysia, with 3,349 or 61.09 per cent of such patients already recovered, 2,041 or 37 per cent of patients still being treated, while the 92 deaths reported so far account for 1.68 per cent of total cases.