Health DG: Second Wave Of Covid-19 Could Hit Malaysia Mid-June
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Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah warns that Malaysia could be looking at a second wave of Covid-19 infections in mid-June.
At the daily Covid-19 briefing today, he explained that the Health Ministry’s National Institute of Health (NIH) can predict the outcomes of Covid-19 cases for the next two to four weeks based on the adherence to social distancing today.
(Credit: @KKMPutrajaya/Twitter)
Referring to mathematical graphs of the infection, he stressed the importance of keeping Malaysia’s R0, pronounced “R naught”, below 0.3 as it currently stands.
R0 is a mathematical term that indicates how contagious an infectious disease is and can tell you the average number of people who will get infected from someone with the disease.
We want to keep R0 below 0.3. If it increases to 1.6, it means we are in dangerous territory and could see an exponential surge of cases.
Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah, Health Director General.
(Credit: Ministry of Health)
To prevent this worst case scenario, Dr Noor Hisham emphasised the importance of Malaysians adhering to the Health Ministry’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and avoiding large gatherings.
The importance is adhering to SOP – social distancing of at least 1 metre, washing hands frequently and even wearing a face mask in public spaces if you have flu-like symptoms.
Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah, Health Director General.
As of 13 May, Malaysia has 37 new Covid-19 cases and two new deaths. Cumulatively, the country records 111 deaths and 6,779 confirmed cases, where 1,387 are still active.
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