KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — The effective reproduction number (R0/Rt) for Covid-19 infections in Malaysia today stands at 0.95, with a 95 per cent confidence interval of 0.94 to 0.96.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a tweet that this is the third consecutive day that the R value has maintained below 1.0, adding that today’s value is lower than yesterday’s at 0.97.

In terms of R0 for the states and federal territories, Labuan is still the highest at 1.26 with a 95 per cent confidence interval of 1.21 to 1.31, while Perlis recorded the lowest at 0.89 with a 95 per cent confidence interval of 0.71 to 1.08.

The remaining R0 for the others are: Negri Sembilan (1.14), Sabah (1.14), Sarawak (1.05), Melaka (1.05), Kuala Lumpur (1.02), Perak (1.01), Selangor (0.99), Johor (0.98), Putrajaya (0.97), Pahang (0.97), Kelantan (0.96), Penang (0.95), Kedah (0.93) and Terengganu (0.92).

The R0/Rt must be below 1.0 in order to Covid-19 to be suppressed.

Malaysia recorded 5,566 new Covid-19 cases and 76 deaths in the past 24 hours, with Selangor once again reporting the highest number of cases with 1,524 new infections, followed by Sarawak (707) and Negri Sembilan (505).

It is also the second day that cases have fallen under 6,000-mark.

One caveat to the flattening average was the country’s persistently high positivity rate, which again exceeded the World Health Organisation’s benchmark to gauge if countries were testing enough for Covid-19.

The WHO recommends a positivity rate of five per cent, with higher figures indicating possible under-reporting of cases due to insufficient testing.