KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia might see its daily Covid-19 cases drop into the single digits by the middle of next month.

This coincided with the current end date of the movement control order (MCO) on May 12.

However, he warned that his prediction was heavily dependent on Malaysians keeping up the preventive measures introduced under the MCO.

"Malaysia is now moving towards the recovery phase and we can achieve (the single digit figure) by the next week or in the middle of May.

"But together we need to embrace the new norms, not just for the Ministry of Health (MOH) but all Malaysians,” said Dr Noor Hisham during his daily Covid-19 briefing today.

He was responding to a question on Thailand’s Covid-19 figures that have stayed in the single-digit range.

Dr Noor Hisham agreed that Thailand has fewer Covid-19 cases despite a larger population than Malaysia, but argued that its situation was different as it did not have to deal with an incident similar to the Sri Petaling cluster.

Stressing that previous practices will no longer be safe without a Covid-19 vaccine, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysians should come to terms with the need to stay indoors unless it was absolutely necessary to leave their homes even after the MCO is ended.

He said having as many people as possible stay at home was the only effective way to break the chain of Covid-19 transmissions for now.