PUTRAJAYA, Oct 28 — The Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (R0) for Malaysia is now 1.1, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the RO had been reduced from 2.2 when the third wave started on Sept 20 to 1.1 today following the enforcement of the conditional movement control order (CMCO).

He also said that based on the 2.2 projection, daily cases were expected to hit 4,500 but the CMCO in the Klang Valley and Sabah managed to lower the RO to 1.5.

"There were 1,228 cases on October 24 and 1,240 cases on October 26… exceeding 1.5. But if we look at the average now it is less than 1.5.

"We find that the RO now has reduced to 1.1. This shows that in the two weeks that the CMCO was implemented, from October 14 until now, we have brought down the RO, meaning the infectivity rate is decreasing,” he said today. 

Even then, Dr Noor Hisham said there was a need to increase activities to reduce the RO to less than 1.0.

As such, he reminded the people to continue to cooperate in breaking the chain of Covid-19 infection by complying with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and staying at home.

He said than an RO of less than 1.0 would help to flatten the curve of infection cases.

On deaths occurring outside of hospitals, or brought-in-dead (BID), he said 44 cases were reported as of yesterday, of which nine were during the second wave and the remaining during the third wave.

He also said that due to the increase in cases in Sabah, the MOH had sent forensic experts to the state to teach and handle BID cases on the field according to the SOP.

Dr Noor Hisham explained that BID occurred due to delays in sending patients to hospitals, resulting in them collapsing in their homes.

"These are some of the challenges that we have, more so if they are elderly and have co-morbidities (multiple medical conditions),” he said. — Bernama