PETALING JAYA: A worrying surge in Covid-19 cases and the growing Rt (indicator of how fast the virus is spreading) could spell dark days ahead for Malaysians.
The “Rt” reference is the rate of infectivity, and estimates the average number of people that one positive Covid-19 patient can infect.
A health expert has called for inter-district movement control order (MCO) to be imposed in states where the situation is threatening to get out of control.
The number of cases jumped to 260 yesterday, the second highest in a day since June 4 when 277 cases were detected.
On top of that, all yesterday’s cases but one were locally transmitted. The only imported case involved a returnee from the United Kingdom.
Of the 259 local cases, Sabah had the highest number of 118, with 31 having a travel history to Sabah, followed by Kedah with 98, 13 cases in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor with 13.
The others were detected in Perlis (two), Penang (one), Terengganu (two), Pahang (one), Johor (five), Malacca (one) and Putrajaya (five).
Four new clusters were detected yesterday – Jalan Meru cluster in Selangor, Joo Hwa cluster in Sabah, Selasih cluster in Putrajaya and Bah Ketil cluster in Kedah.
A statewide order restricting travel will be imposed between districts in Sabah from 12.01am tomorrow to Oct 16.
With the Rt in Selangor hitting 1.95 on Wednesday (meaning one index case can infect 1.95 people), head of the School of Medicine at Taylor’s University Prof Dr Rusli Nordin said it would be best for an MCO to be implemented in Selangor.
However, he said a nationwide MCO is not necessary at the moment but tight controls are needed on inter-district and inter-state movement to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.
Rusli said despite being tested negative with an RT-PCR, or rapid antigen test, there were incidents of false negative test results. This is because the RTK-Ag test has a sensitivity of 90%, according to the Health Ministry.
According to a statement by the ministry in July, there could be false negative results for 10 people out of 100 people screened.
Rusli said it takes days after exposure for asymptomatic carriers to show symptoms, and the ministry should consider tighter controls in Selangor to reduce the Rt rate to below 1.0.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has said that those who tested negative will not have to undergo mandatory home quarantine upon returning from Sabah.
Sarawak has imposed a compulsory home isolation of 14 days for people entering the state from Sabah and Labuan, with tests taken on day two and day 14 of quarantine.
Noor Hisham yesterday said returnees would only be isolated if they were tested negative but were exposed to positive patients. Those who showed symptoms but tested negative would also be quarantined.
On Wednesday, Noor Hisham said Selangor recorded a 1.95 Rt due to a jump in the number of daily Covid-19 cases of between 10 and 15 compared to its previous figures of only two or three cases daily. Sabah’s Rt figure was 1.26 and Kedah’s rate was 0.65.
Epidemiologist Datuk Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud, a professor at Universiti Malaya, said the number of cases in Selangor was generally low previously but those who returned from Sabah had caused a sudden increase of cases in Selangor.
“When people started coming back from Sabah, they brought the virus back with them and spread it to others. So the numbers just jumped, causing the Rt to spike,” he said.
“It is a concern and it needs to be tackled swiftly. If prompt actions are taken to address this, then we can stop it from spreading to others.”
He said the Rt in Selangor is not expected to come down to below 1.0 within the next few days.
“That is why I am (all) for mandatory quarantine in centres for people coming back from Sabah, as it is obviously the hotspot in the country at the moment. We need to consider all returnees as possibly infected until proven otherwise,” he said.
